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ANCIENT TIMES 

A HISTORY OF THE 
EARLY WORLD 



AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF 

ANCIENT HISTORY AND THE 

CAREER OF EARLY MAN 



BY 
JAMES HENRY BREASTED, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL HISTORY AND EGYPTOLOGY; CHAIRMAN 

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY JAMES HENRY BREASTED 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



OUTLINES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY, PART I 

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON 

AND JAMES HENRY BREASTED 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



321-3 



^61 



^Sf? 






GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



t 

/?/ 

^~ PREFACE 

/ ^• 

In the selection of subject matter as well as in style and 
,.-^^ diction, it has been the purpose of the author to make this 
book sufficiently simple to be put into the hands of first-year 
high-school pupils. A great deal of labor has been devoted 
to the mere task of clear and simple statement and arrange- 
ment. While simple enough for first-year high-school work, it 
nevertheless is planned to interest and stimulate all students 
of high-school age. In dealing with each civilization a suffi- 
cient framework of political organization and of historical 
events has been laid down ; but the bulk of the space has been 
devoted to the life of ??tan in all its manifestations — society, 
■ -dustry, commerce, religion, art, literature. These things are 
,0 presented as to make it clear how one age grows out of 

nother, and how each civilization profits by that which has 

receded it. 
The story of each great race or nation is thus clearly disen- 
. ;aged and presented in period after period ; but, nevertheless, 

he book purposes to present the career of man as a whole, in 
a connected story of expanding life and civilization from the 
days of the rudest stone hatchet to the Christian cathedrals of 
"^urope, without a serious gap. A symmetrical presentation 

f the career of man requires adequate space for the origins of 
dlization and the history of the Orient, as these two subjects 

.ave been revealed by the excavations and discoveries of the 
last two generations, especially the last twenty-five years. The 
reasons for devoting more than the customary space to these 
subjects in this book may therefore be briefly noted. 

The length of the career of man discernible by us has been 
enormously increased at the present day by archaeological 



iv Ancient Times 

discovery, carrying back the development of human arts at 
least fifty, and perhaps two hundred thousand, years. Even a 
recorded in written documents, modern discovery in the Orier 
has placed behind the period of human history as formerly 
known to us another period equally long, thus doubling the 
length of the historic age. It cannot be said that all this vast 
new outlook has as yet been surveyed and briefly presented in 
a form intelligible to younger students as an imposing pano- 
rama of the expanding human career. The attainment of such 
a point of view of the career of man has been a slow process. 
The ancient history written by Sulpicius Severus, about 400 a.d., 
survived for over a thousand years, and became a respected text- 
book, which was in use as late as the sixteenth century. It 
dealt almost exclusively with the history of Rome. A mention 
of the battle of Marathon was its 07ily reference to Greek history. 
The Roman colossus bulked so large that nothing earlier could 
be seen behind it. 

Within the last few years, however, the marvelous genius 
of the Greeks has finally found full recognition in our histori- 
cal textbooks. There is another similar step yet to be taken, 
and that is to discern behind Greece and Rome an additional 
great and important chapter of the human story and to give it 
adequate and interesting presentation to young readers. Prob- 
ably no one outside the arcanum of the traditional classicists 
would question the assertion that conquests which we owe to 
the Orient, like the discovery of metal and the invention of 
alphabetic writing, were achievements of far greater impor- 
tance than the details of the Peloponnesian Wars, whether 
estimated by their consequences to the human race or by their 
value as information in the mind of the modern high-school 
pupil. Whether such achievements are regarded as falling 
within the historic epoch or not is a matter of small moment. 
They belong to the human career^ and as such they should find 
their place in the picture of that career which is presented to 
the younger generation. 



Preface v 

The intelligent person of to-day desires to be so familiar with 
such facts as these in the rise of civilization as to possess some 
moderate acquaintance with the early chapters in the human 
career. Civilization arose in the Orient, and early Europe ob- 
tained it there. But the languages of the early Orient perished, 
and the ability to read them was lost many centuries ago. On 
the other hand, the languages of Greece and Rome were never 
lost, like those of the ancient Orient. In modern educational 
history Greek and Latin have not been suddenly recovered, 
and we have not had to grow accustomed to their abrupt intro- 
duction into science and education. The sudden and dramatic 
recovery of the earlier chapters of the human career, lying 
behind Greece and Rome, has created a situation to which our 
histories of the ancient world, as they are found in^ our public 
schools, have not yet adjusted themselves. The habit of regard- 
ing ancient history as beginning with Greece has become so 
fixed that it is not easily to be changed. Furthermore, the 
monuments and documents left us by the ancient Orient are 
far larger in extent than those which we have inherited from 
Greece and Rome together, and their enormous volume, to- 
gether with their difficult systems of writing, have made it very 
laborious to recover and arrange the history of the Orient in 
form and language suitable for the high-school pupil. 

In 1884 Eduard Meyer, the leading ancient historian of this 
generation, in his History of Antiquity devoted six hundred 
and nineteen pages to the Orient. In the third edition, still 
unfinished, which began to appear in 1913, the portion of 
the Orient thus far issued (less than half) occupies eleven 
hundred and fifty pages. The remainder, still unpublished, 
.will easily bring the treatment of the Orient up to twenty- 
four or twenty-five hundred pages, that is, about four times its 
former bulk. A textbook which devotes a brief fifty- or sixty- 
page introduction to the Orient and begins " real history " with 
the Greeks is not proportioned in accordance with modem 
knowledge of the ancient world. 



vi Ancient Times 

Furthermore, the value of the early oriental monuments as 
teaching material has as yet hardly been discerned. The highly 
graphic pictorial monuments and records of the East, when 
accompanied by proper explanations, may be made to convey 
to the young student the meaning and character of a contem- 
porary historical source more vividly than any body of ancient 
records surviving elsewhere. When adequately explained, such 
records also serve to dispel that sense of complete unreality 
which besets the young person in studying the career of ancient 
man. These materials have not been employed in our schools, 
because they have not been available to the teacher in the 
current textbooks. 

Finally, when we recall that the leading religion of the world — 
the one which still dominates Western civilization to-day — came 
to us out of the Orient ; when we further remember that before 
it fell the Roman Empire was completely orientalized, it would 
appear to be only fair to our schools to give them books furnish- 
ing an adequate treatment of pre-Greek civilization. This does 
not mean to question for a moment the undeniable supremacy 
of Greek culture, or to give it any less space than before. The 
author believes that no one who reads the chapters on Greece 
in this survey will gain the impression that Hellas has been sac- 
rificed to Moloch — in other words, to her oriental predecessors. 

The author is convinced that the surviving monuments of 
the entire ancient world can be so visualized as to render ancient 
history a very real story even to young students, and that these 
monuments may be made to tell their own story with great 
vividness. This method he has already introduced into the 
ancient-history chapters of Outlines of European History^ Fart I, 
where it has demonstrated its availability. The same method 
has been employed in illustrating this ancient history. The 
result has been a book somewhat larger than the current text- 
books on ancient history ; but the excess is due to the series of 
illustrations. The book actually contains a text of about five 
hundred pages, with a " picture book " of about two hundred 



Preface vii 

and fifteen pages. Teachers will do well to make the illustra- 
tions and accompanying descriptive matter part of each lesson. 
The references in the text to the illustrations, and the refer- 
ences to the text in the descriptive matter under the illustrations, 
if noted and used, will be found to merge text and illustrations 
into a unified whole. It should be noted that all references to the 
text are by paragraph (§) except a few references by " Section." 

An elaborate system of maps has been arranged by the 
author for the purpose of bringing the successive epochs of 
history before the pupil in terms of geography. The under- 
lying principle is the arrangement on the same plate of from 
two to four maps representing successive historical epochs. 
It is believed that these composite maps, called by the author 
sequence maps, will prove a powerful aid to the teacher. 

The author has not found it an easy task to turn from 
twenty-five years of research in a laboratory of ancient history, 
extending from a university post in America to the frontiers 
of the oriental lands, and endeavor to summarize for youthful 
readers the facts now discernible in the career of ancient 
man. Under these circumstances the experience of my friend 
Professor James Harvey Robinson, who has done so much for 
the study of history in the schools of America, has been 
invaluable. The book owes a great deal to the inspiration of 
his unflagging interest and the helpfulness of his long experi- 
ence in the art of simplification. It may be mentioned here 
that Professor Robinson's Medieval and Modern Times forms 
the continuation of this volume on ancient history. To my 
colleague Professor C. F. Huth also I am indebted for careful 
reading of the proofs, accompanied by unfailingly valuable 
counsel. To him, furthermore, I owe the excellent bibliography 
of Greece and Rome at the end of the volume. Mr. Robert I. 
Adriance, head of the history department of the East Orange 
high schools, has kindly read all the proofs. His discerning 
criticisms and wide knowledge have proved very valuable to the 
book, and his unfailing interest has been a great encouragement. 



CONTENTS 

PART I. THE EARLIEST EUROPEANS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Early Mankind in Europe 

1. Earliest Man's Ignorance and Progress i 

2. The Early Stone Age 5 

3. The Middle Stone Age 9 

4. The Late Stone Age • . . . . 14 

PART 11. THE ORIENT 

II. The Story of Egypt: the Earliest Nile-Dwellers 
AND THE Pyramid Age 

5. Egypt and its Earliest Inhabitants 35 

6. The Pyramid Age (about 3000 to 2500 B.C.) 49 

7. Art and Architecture in the Pyramid Age 68 

III. The Story of Egypt : the Feudal Age and the Empire 

8. The Nile Voyage and the Feudal Age 74 

9. The Founding of the Empire 80 

10. The Higher Life of the Empire 86 

11. The Decline and Fall of the Egyptian Empire .... 93 

12. The Decipherment of Egyptian Writing by Champollion 97 

IV. Western Asia : Babylonia 

13. The Lands and Races of Western Asia 100 

14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and Early Struggle of 

Sumerian and Semite 107 

15. The First Semitic Triumph: the Age of Sargon . . . 122 

16. Union of Sumerians and Semites : the Kings of Sumer 

and Akkad 126 

17. The Second Semitic Triumph: the Age of Hammurapi 

and After 128 

V. The Assyrians and Chaldeans 

18. Early Assyria and her Rivals 140 

19. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 606 B.C.) 151 

20. The Chaldean Empire : the Last Semitic Empire . . . 164 



xii Ancient Times 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI. The Medo-Persian Empire 

21. The Indo-European Peoples and their Dispersion . . 171 

22. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster 176 

23. Rise of the Persian Empire : Cyrus 179 

24. The Civilization of the Persian Empire (about 530 

to 330 B.C.) 182 

25. PersianDocumentsandtheDecipherment of Cuneiform 189 

26. The Results of Persian Rule and its Religious Influence 194 

VII. The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 

27. Palestine and the Predecessors of the Hebrews there 197 

28. The Settlement of the Hebrews in Palestine and the 

United Hebrew Kingdom 200 

29. The Two Hebrew Kingdoms 206 

30. The Destruction of the Hebrew Kingdoms by Assyria 

and Chaldea 210 

31. The Hebrews in Exile and their Deliverance by the 

Persians 213 

32. Decline of Oriental Leadership ; Estimate of Oriental 

Civilization 217 

PART III. THE GREEKS 

VIII. The Dawn of' European Civilization and the Rise 
OF THE Eastern Mediterranean World . 

33. The Dawn of Civilization in Europe 221 

34. The ^gean World : the Islands 225 

35. The ^gean World : the Mainland 236 

36. Modern Discovery in the Northern Mediterranean and 

the Rise of an Eastern Mediterranean World . . . 244 

IX. The Greek Conquest of the ^^gean World 

37. The Coming of the Greeks 252 

38. The Nomad Greeks make the Transition to the Settled 

Life 259 

X. Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 

39. The iEgean Inheritance and the Spread of Phoenician 

Commerce . 263 

40. The Phoenicians bring the First Alphabet to Europe 270 

41. Greek Warriors and the Hero Songs 273 

42. The Beginnings and Early Development of Greek 

Religion 276 



Contents xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. The Age of the Nobles and Greek Expansion in 
THE Mediterranean 

43. The Disappearance of the Kings and the Leadership 

of the Nobles 282 

44. Greek Expansion in the Age of the Nobles .... 287 

45. Greek Civilization in the Age of the Nobles .... 290 

XII. The Industrial Revolution and the Age of the 
Tyrants 

46. The Industrial and Commercial Revolution .... 295 

47. Rise of the Democracy and the Age of the Tyrants . 301 

48. Civilization of the Age of the Tyrants 307 

XIII. The Repulse of Persia 

49. The Coming of the Persians .... 322 

50. The Greek Repulse of Persians and Phoenicians . . 328 

XIV. The Growing Rivalry bp:tween Athens and Sparta, 

and the Rise of the Athenian Empire 

51. The Beginnings of the Rivalry between Athens and 

Sparta 336 

52. The Rise of the Athenian Empire and the Triumph 

of Democracy 339 

53. Commercial Development and the Opening of the 

Struggle between Athens and Sparta 344 

XV. Athens in the Age of Pericles 

54. Society, the Home, Education and Training of Young 

Citizens 350 

55. Higher Education, Science, and the Training gained 

by State Service , 357 

56. Art and Literature 362 

XVI. The Struggle between Athens and Sparta and 
THE Fall of the Athenian Empire 

57. The Tyranny of Athens and the Second Peloponne- 

sian War 37S 

58. Third Peloponnesian War and Destruction of the 

Athenian Empire 385 

XVII. The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 

59. Spartan Leadership and the Decline of Democracy . 394 

60. The Fall of Sparta and the Leadership of Thebes . 402 



xiv Ancient Times 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. The Higher Life of the Greeks from the Death 
OF Pericles to the Fall of the Greek States 
6t. Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting 406 

62. Religion, Literature, and Thought 413 

XIX. Alexander the Great 

63. The Rise of Macedonia . , . . = 425 

64. Campaigns of Alexander th.: Great . . . , . . - ; . 429 

65. International Policy of Alexander : its Personal Con- 

sequences 438 

PART IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE 
HELLENISTIC AGE AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 

XX. The Heirs of Alexander 

66. The Heirs of Alexander's Empire 445 

67. The Decline of Greece 450 

XXI. The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 

68. Cities, Architecture, and Art 453 

69. Inventions and Science ; Libraries and Literature . 466 

70. Education, Philosophy, and Religion 475 

71. Formation of a Hellenistic World of Hellenic-Oriental 

Civilization; Decline ofCitizenship and the City-State 481 

XXII. The Western Mediterranean World and the 
Roman Conquest of Italy 

72. The Western Mediterranean World 484 

73. Earliest Rome 492 

74. The Early Republic : its Progress and Government . 499 

75. The Expansion of the Roman Republic and the Con- 

quest of Italy 511 

XXIII. The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 

and the Rivalry with Carthage 

76. Italy under the Early Roman Republic 520 

77. Rome and Carthage as Commercial Rivals .... 524 

XXIV. The Roman Conquest of the Western Mediter- 

ranean World 

78. The Struggle with Carthage : the Sicilian War, or 

First Punic War 533 

79. The Hannibalic War (Second Punic War) and the 

Destruction of Carthage , . 535 



Contents 



XV 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXV. World Dominion and Degeneracy 

80. The Roman Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean 

World 549 

81. Roman Government and Civilization in the Age of 

Conquest 553 

82. Degeneration in City and Country 563 

XXVI. A Century of Revolution and the End of the 
Republic 

83. The Land Situation and the Beginning of the 

Struggle between Senate and People 574 

84. The Rise of One-Man Power: Marius and Sulla . 578 

85. The Overthrow of the Republic : Pompey and 

Cassar 584 

86. The Triumph of Augustus and the End of the 

Civil War 596 



PART V. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

XXVII. The First of Two Centuries of Peace: the Age 
OF Augustus and the Successors of his Line 

87. The Rule of Augustus and the Beginning of Two 

Centuries of Peace (30 B.C.-14 A. D.) 601 

88. The Civilization of the Augustan Age 607 

89. The Line of Augustus and the End of the First 

Century of Peace (14 A. D.-68 A.D.) 617 

XXVIII. The Second Century of Peace and the Civiliza- 
tion of the Early Roman Empire 

90. The Emperors of the Second Century of Peace (be- 

ginning 69 A.D.) 625 

91. The Civilization of the Early Roman Empire: the 

Provinces 636 

92. The Civilization of the Early Roman Empire : Rome 649 

93. Popularity of Oriental Religions and the Spread of 

Early Christianity 659 

94. The End of the Second Century of Peace .... 664 

XXIX. A Century of Revolution and the Division of 
THE Empire 

95. Internal Decline of the Roman Empire ..... 667 

96. A Century of Revolution 673 



xvi Ancient Times 

CHAPTER PAGE 

97. The Roman Empire an Oriental Despotism .... 677 

98. The Division of the Empire and the Triumph of 

Christianity 682 

XXX. The Triumph of the Barbarians and the End of 
THE Ancient World 

99. The Barbarian Invasions and the Fall of the Western 

Empire 688 

100. The Triumph of the Roman Church and its Power 

over the Western Nations 698 

10 1. The Final Revival of the Orient and the Forerunners 

of the Nations of Modern Europe 705 

102. Retrospect 713 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 717 

INDEX 733 



LIST OF COLORED PLATES 

PLATE PAGE 

I. Restoration of an Egyptian Vase of the 

Pyramid Age. (After Borchardt) . Frontispiece 

II. Glazed Brick Lion from the Wall of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's Palace. (After Koldewey) . 164 

III. The Plain of Argos and the Sea viewed 

from the Castle of Tiryns 276 

IV. A Corner of the Parthenon 380 

V. The Temples and Palms of Phil^ .... 444 

VI. Greeks and Persians hunting Lions with 

Alexander the Great 468 

VII. The Greek Theater at Taormina, with its 

Roman Additions 560 

VIII. One of the Oldest Surviving Portrait 

Paintings 654 



LIST OF MAPS 

PAGES 

Map of Europe in the Ice Age '. . . 8 

Egypt and the Nile Valley to the Second Cataract 36-37 

Egyptian Thebes 81 

The Ancient Oriental World and Neighboring Europe before the 

Rise of the Greeks loo-ioi 

Map of Sumer and Akkad, later called Babylonia 106 

Map of Nineveh ' 154 

Map of Babylon in the Chaldean Age 165 

Sequence Map showing Expansion of the Oriental Empires for a 

Thousand Years (from about 1500 to 500 B.C.) 1S8-189 

I. Egyptian Empire (Fifteenth Century B.C.) 
II. Assyrian Empire (Seventh Century B.C.) 

III. Median and Chaldean Empires (Sixth Century B.C.) 

IV. Persian Empire (500 B.C.) 

Palestine the Land of the Hebrews 196-197 

Sequence Map of the Eastern Mediterranean World from the 
Grand Age of Cretan Civilization (about 1500 B.C.) to the Con- 
quest of the ^gean by the Greeks 252-253 

I. Pre-Greek Civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean World till 
1500 B.C. 
II. The Eastern Mediterranean and the Greek Conquest of the ^^gean 
World (1500-1000 B.C.) and the Spread of Phoenician Commerce 
after 1200 B.C. 

Greece in the Fifth Century B.c 264-265 

Colonial Expansion of the Greeks and Phoenicians down to the 

Sixth Century B.c 288-289 

Map of the World by Hecataeus (517 B.C.) 319 

Sequence Map showing Western Limits of the Persian Empire 
and the Greek States from the Persian Wars (beginning 
490 B.C.) to the Beginning of the Second Peloponnesian War 
(431 B.C.) 344-345 

I. Western Limits of the Persian Empire and the Greek States in the 
Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.) 
II. The Athenian Empire and the Greek States at the Opening of the 
Second Peloponnesian War (431 B.C.) 
xviii 



List of Maps xix 

PAGES 

Central Greece and Athens 352-353 

I. Attica and Neighboring States 
II. Athens 

Map of the World according to Herodotus 360 

Plan of the Siege of Syracuse . 386 

Plan of the Battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.) 403 

Empire of Alexander the Great 436-437 

Sequence Map showing the Three Empires of Alexander's Suc- 
cessors from the Third Century B.C. to their Decline at the 
Coming of the Romans after 200 b. c 448-449 

I. The Three Empires of Alexander's Successors in the Third Cen- 
tury B.C. 
II. The Three Empires of Alexander's Successors Early in the Second 
Century B.C. 

Map of the World according to Eratosthenes (200 B.C.) .... 472 
Italy and Adjacent Lands before the Supremacy of Rome . 484-485 
Sketch Map showing Four Rival Peoples of the Western Medi- 
terranean: Etruscans, Italic Tribes, Greeks, and Carthaginians 489 

Early Latium 493 

Map of Early Rome showing the Successive Stages of its Growth 500 

Four Sketch Maps showing Expansion of Roman Power in Italy 516 

I. Italy at the Beginning of the Roman Republic (about 500 B.C.) 

II. Roman Power during the Samnite Wars (down to 300 B.C.) 

III. Roman Power after the Samnite Wars (290 B.C.) 

IV. Roman Power after the War with Pyrrhus (275 B.C.) 

The Route and Marches of Hannibal, from 218 to 203 B.C. . . . 538 

Plan of the Battle of Cannae 540 

Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Power from 
the Beginning of the Wars with Carthage (264 B.C.) to the Death 
of Caesar (44 B.C.) 552-553 

I. Roman Power at the Beginning of the Wars with Carthage 
(264 B.C.) 
II. Expansion of Roman Power between the Sicilian and Hannibalian 
Wars with Carthage (241-218 b.c.) 

III. Expansion of Roman Power from the End of the Hannibalian Wars 

to the Beginning of the Revolution (201-133 B.C.) 

IV. Expansion of Roman Power from the Beginning of the Revolu- 

tion to the Death of Caesar (133-44 B.C.) 

Plan of the Battle of Pharsalus 593 

Map of Rome under the Emperors , . . . , ^ 62? 



XX Aficient Times 

PAGES 

Sequence Map showing Territorial Gains and Losses of the 
Roman Empire from the Death of Caesar (44 B.C.) to the Death 
of Diocletian (305 a.d.) , . . 636-637 

I. Expansion of the Roman Empire from the Death of Caesar to the 
End of the Two Centuries of Peace (44 B.C.-167 a.d.) 
II. The Roman Empire under Diocletian (284-305 a.d.) showing the 
Four Prefectures 

Map of the World by the Astronomer and Geographer Ptolemy 

(Second Century a.d.) 657 

The Roman Empire as organized by Diocletian and Constan- 

tine 676-677 

Migrations of the Germans 692-693 

Europe in the Time of Charlemagne 700-701 

Mohammedan Conquests at their Greatest Extent 709 



ANCIENT TIMES 

PART I. THE EARLIEST EUROPEANS 
CHAPTER I 

EARLY MANKIND IN EUROPE 

Section i. Earliest Man's Ignorance and Progress 

We all know that our fathers and mothers never saw an i. Man's 
aeroplane when they were children, and very few of them had fentkm and 
ever seen an automobile. Their fathers lived durins: most of acquirement 

^ oi the posses- 

their lives without electric lights or telephones in their houses, sions of life 

Their grandfathers, our great-grandfathers, were obliged to 

make all long journeys in stagecoaches drawn by horses, and 

some of them died without ever having seen a locomotive. 

One after another, as they have been invented, such things 

have come and continue to come into the lives of men. 

Each device grew out of earlier inventions, and each would 2. Ancient 
have been impossible without the inventions which came in story'of^ 
before it. Thus, if we went back far enous^h, we would reach a ^^"^!^^^ 

' ° ' achievements 

point where no one could build a stagecoach or a wagon, because followed by- 
no one had invented a wheel or tamed a wild horse. Earlier rivalries 
still there were no ships and no travel or commerce by sea. 
There were no metal tools, for no one had ever seen any 
metal. Without metal tools for cutting the stone there could 
be no fine buildings or stone structures. It was impossible to 
write, for no one had invented writing, and so there were no 
books nor any knowledge of science. At the same time there 
were no schools or hospitals or churches, and no laws or 
government. This book is intended to tell the story of how / 



Ancient Times 



3. Man be- 
gan with 
nothing and 
with no one 
to teach him 



4. Savages 
of to-day 
show us the 
Hfe of earhest 
man ; the 
Tasmanians 
and what 
they had 
failed to 
learn 



5. The 
Tasmanians 
and what 
they had 
learned 



mankind gained all these things and built up great nations which 
struggled among themselves for leadership, and then weakened 
and fell. This story forms what we call ancient history. 

If we go back far enough in the story of man, we reach a 
time when he possessed nothing whatever but his hands with 
which to protect himself, satisfy his hunger, and meet all his 
other needs. He must have been without speech and unable 
even to build a fire. There was no one to teach him anything. 
The earliest men who began in this situation had to learn 
everything for themselves by slow experience and long effort, 
and every tool, however simple, had to be invented. 

People so completely uncivilized as the earliest men must 
have been, no longer exist on earth. Nevertheless, the lowest 
savage tribes found by explorers at the present day are still 
leading a life very much like that of our early ancestors. 
For example, the Tasmanians, the people whom the English 
found on the island of Tasmania a century or so ago, wore 
no clothing; they had not learned how to build a roofed hut; 
they did not know how to make a bow and arrows, nor even 
to fish. They had no goats, sheep, or cows; no horses, not 
even a dog. They had never heard of sowing seed nor rais- 
ing a crop of any kind. They did not know that clay would 
harden in the fire, and so they had no pottery jars, jugs, or 
dishes for food. 

Naked and houseless, the Tasmanians had learned to satisfy 
only a very few of man's needs. Yet that which they had 
learned had carried them a long way beyond the earliest 
men. They could kindle a fire, which kept them warm in 
cold weather, and over it they cooked their meat. They had 
learned to construct very good wooden spears, though without 
metal tips, for they had never heard of metal. These spears, 
tipped with stone, they could throw with great accuracy, and 
thus bring down the game they needed for food, or drive away 
their human enemies. They would take a flat stone and, by 
chipping off the edges to thin them, they could make a rude 



Early Mankind in Europe 



knife with which to skin and cut up the game they killed. 
They were also very deft in weaving cups, vessels, and baskets 
of bark fiber. Above all, they had a simple language, with 
words for all the ordinary things they used and. did every day. 

It was only after sev- 
eral hundred thousand 
years of savage life arnd 
slow progress that the 
earliest prehistoric men 
of Europe reached and 
passed beyond a stage 
of savagery like that 
of the Tasmanians just 
described. The Eu- 
rope which formed the 
home of these earliest 
men was very differ- 
ent from what it is to- 
day. In the shadow 
of the lofty primeval 
forests which fringed 
the streams and clothed 
the wide plains, the 
ponderous hippopota- 
mus wallowed along 
the shores of the Euro- 
pean rivers. The fierce 
rhinoceros, with a horn 
three feet in length, 
charged through the 

heavy tropical growth on their banks, and vast elepha its, with 
shaggy hair two feet long (Fig. lo, 7), wandered through the 
jungles behind. Myriads of bison and wild horses grazed on the 
uplands, and the broken glades sheltered numerous herds of 
deer. A moist atmosphere, warm and enervating, vibrant with 




6. Prehis- 
toric Europe 
its climate 
and animals 



Fig. I. Fire-making without 

Matches, by Modern Natives 

OF Australia 

The outfit is very simple, consisting merely 
of a round, dry stick placed upright with 
the lower end in a hole in a dry tree-trunk 
lying on the ground. By turning the stick 
rapidly between both hands the friction 
finally generates sufficient heat to produce 
flame (§ 8) 



Ancient Times 



7. Life and 
haunts of the 
earliest Euro- 
pean ; his 
wooden 
weapons and 
tools 




the notes of many tropical birds, pervaded this prehistoric 
European wilderness stretching far across Europe. 

With nothing to 
cover his naked- 
ness, the early sav- 
age of Europe 
roamed stealthily 
through these trop- 
ical forests, seek- 
ing his daily food 
among the roots, 
seeds, and wild 
fruits wherever he 
could find them, 
and listening with 
keen and eager ear 
for the sound of 
small game which 
he might be able 
to lay low with his 
rough wooden club. 
Doubtless he often 
fled in terror as he 
felt the thunderous 
tread of the giant 
animals of the for- 
est or caught dim 
glimpses of colossal 
elephants plunging 
through the deep 
vistas of the jungle. 
At night the hunter 
slept wherever the 
game had led him, after cutting up the flesh of his prey with 
a wooden knife and devouring it raw. Not knowing how to 



Fig. 2. A Group of North American 

Indians making Flint Weapons. (After 

Holmes) 

The farthest Indian is prying loose a large 
flint stone. This is the raw material, which is 
then taken by the middle Indian, who crashes 
it down upon a rock and shatters it into frag- 
ments. One of these fragments is then taken 
by the nearest Indian, who holds it in his left 
hand while he strikes it with a stone in his 
right hand. These blows flake off pieces of 
flint, and the Indian is so skillful that he can 
thus shape a flint hatchet. This process of shap- 
ing the flint by blows (that is, by peixiissioii) 
was the earliest and rudest method and pro- 
duced the roughest stone tools. In the course 
of thousands of years two improvements fol- 
lowed — chipping the edge hy pressure (Fig. 5) 
and sharpening the edg&hy grinding {Y\g. 16, j') 



Early Mankind in Europe 5 

make a fire to ward off the savage beasts, he lay trembling in 
the darkness at the roar of the mighty saber-tooth tiger. 

At length, however, he learned to know fire, perhaps finding 8. Man 
it in his jungle haunts when the lightning kindled a forest fire, kindle fire 
or fearing it from afar as he viewed the terrible volcanoes ^^^ "^^ ^*°"® 
along the Mediterranean. It was a great step forward when he 
at last learned to produce it himself with his whirl-stick (Fig. i). 
He could then cook his food, warm his body, and harden the 
tip of his wooden spear in the fire. But his dull wooden knife 
he could not harden, and he sometimes found a broken stone 
and used its ragged edge. When he learned to shape the stone 
to suit his needs (Fig. 2), and thus to produce a rude tool or 
weapon, he entered what_we_n^_w_^njthe_Siojae_..A^^ more - 
than fifty thousand years ago. 

From this point on we can hold in our hands the very stone 9. Career of 
tools and implements with which early men maintained them- traceaSe"in 
selves in their long strus^gle to survive. By the lone: trail of surviving 

^ ^° y & stone imple- 

stone implements which they left behind them we can follow ments and 
them and tell just how far they had advanced in the succes- of his hands 
sive stages of their upward career ; for these stages are re- 
vealed to us by their increasing skill in working stone and in 
other industries which they gradually learned. We can dis- 
tinguish, in the examples of their handiwork which still survive, 
three successive ages, which we may call the Early Stone Age, 
the Middle Stone Age, and the Late Stone Age. Let us now 
observe man's progress through these three ages, one after 
the other. 

Section 2. The Early Stone Age 

Until a short time ago it was supposed that human history 10. Modem 

was comparatively brief. Moreover, everyone took it for man's^vast^ 

granted that the earlier period of man's past had left no sur- ^^^ "'^'^'J. 

viving traces. An old letter written in London two hundred ago 
years ago (17 14) tells how a certain apothecary discovered 
the bones of an elephant in a gravel-pit near London, and. near 



A7icient Times 



II. The 

Early Stone 
Age hunter 
and his fist- 
hatchet 




Fig. 3. A Flint Fist- 
hatchet OF THE Early 
Stone Age 

Rough flint flakes older than 
the fist-hatchet still survive 
to show us man's earliest 
efforts at shaping stone. 
But the fist-hatchet is the 
earliest well-finished type 
of tool produced by man. 
The original is about 9 
inches long, and the draw 
ing reduces it to less than 
one third. Either end might 
be used as the cutting edge, 
but it was usually grasped 
in the fist by the narrower 
part, and never had any 
handle. Handles of wood 
or horn do not appear until 
much later (cf. Fig. 16, .^-5). 
Traces of use and wear are 
sometimes found on such 
fist-hatchets 



by, the flint head of a spear. Al- 
though this letter was soon after- 
ward published, with a drawing of 
the spearhead, no attention was paid 
to it and it was quickly forgotten. 
For over a century similar discov- 
eries, both in England and on the 
Continent, met with the same fate. 
It was not until some fifty years 
ago, after the evidence had been 
available for a century and a half, 
that the eyes of scientific men were 
at last opened to the fact of the 
enormously long sojourn of man 
upon the earth. 

Long-continued excavations, es- 
pecially in France, have furnished 
thousands of stone tools which re- 
veal to us the progress of the Early 
Stone Age hunter after he had found 
that he could chip stones. By study- 
ing the collections of such stone tools 
now in the museums of Europe we 
can see how the early man gradually 
outgrew a variety of rudely chipped 
stones and finally produced a suc- 
cessful stone implement (Fig„ 3). 
This he used for almost everything. 
It was from eight to ten inches long, 
narrow above and wider below, and 
sufficiently sharp to enable him to 
cut the roots and branches which he 
used for food, to shape his wooden 
fire-kindling outfit (Fig. i), and to 
hew out his heavy wooden club. 



Early Mankind ifi Europe 7 

This stone implement we call a '' fist-hatchet," because it was 
grasped in the fist, usually by the narrow end, for the hunter 
had not yet discovered how to attach a handle. These fist- 
hatchets have been found in many places in Europe as well 
as in other parts of the world. It is the earliest widely made 
and used human device which has survived to our day. 

Perishing probably in great numbers, as his hazardous life 12. Limita- 
went on, this savage hunter of prehistoric Europe continued Early °Stone 
for thousands of years the uncertain struggle for survival. He ^^e man 
slowly improved his rough stone fist-hatchet, and he probably 
learned to make additional implements of wood, but these have 
of course rotted and perished, so that we know nothing of 
them. Of all the later possessions of man he had not yet one. 
The wide grainfields and the populous and prosperous com- 
munities of later Europe were still many thousands of years 
distant, in a future which it was even more impossible for 
him to foresee than our own now is for us. Single-handed he 
waged war upon all animals. There was not a beast which 
was not his foe. There was as yet no dog, no sheep or fowl, 
to which he might stretch out a kindly hand. The ancestor of 
the modern dog was then either the jackal or the fierce wolf of 
the forest, leaping upon the primitive hunter unawares, and 
those beasts which were the ancestors of our modern domestic 
animals were either not yet in existence in Europe or, like the 
horse, still wandered the forests in a wild state (cf . Fig. 1 2). 

At length the Early Stone Age hunter began to notice that 13. Coming 
the air of his forest home was losing its tropical warmth. 
Geologists have not yet found out why, but the climate grew 
colder, and, as the ages passed, the ice, which all the year round 
still overlies the region of the North Pole and the summits of 
the Alps, began to descend. The northern ice crept farther and 
farther southward until it covered England as far south as the 
Thames. The glaciers of the Alps moved down the Rhone 
valley as far as the spot where now the city of Lyons .stands 
(see map, p. 8). On our own continent of North America 




I \ Regions covered by Ice 
I ■•/:--l " " " ^""8 




Interval 

Human bones found as deep as 

80 feet below the surface 

of the earth 



Not less than 50,000 years 



Sketch Map of Europe in the Ice Age and Diagram 
SHOWING Four Successive Descents of the Ice 

During the Ice Age the ice advanced and retreated four times; that 
is, there were four periods of cold, each followed by a long interval of 
warmth. These periods of cold and warmth are indicated by the fall- 
ing (cold) and the rising (warmth) of the wavy line in the diagram. We 
are now living in the fourth warm interval. It is clear that prehistoric 
men began to make fist-hatchets in one of the warm intervals ; but it 
has been very difficult for geologists and archaeologists to find out %vhich 
warm interval. Some think that it was the second, and if so, then men 
began making stone tools at least two hundred thousand years ago. 
Most investigators, however, now believe that stone toolmaking be- 
gan early in the third warm interval ; that is, the warm interval pre- 
ceding the last advance of the ice. In this case stone toolmaking may 
have begun as late as fifty thousand years before Christ. But Professor 
Henry Fairfield Osborn, in his valuable volume Men of the Old Sto?ie Age^ 
accept? a date over one hundred and twenty-five thousand years ago for 
the earliest stone tools, which he also places in the third wdixm. interval 



Early Mankind m Europe 9 

the southern edge of the ice is marked by lines of bowlders car- 
ried and left there by the ice. Such lines of bowlders are found, 
for example, as far south as Long Island, and westward along 
the valleys of the Ohio and Missouri. 

The hunter saw the glittering blue masses of glacier ice, with 14. The end 
their crown of snow, pushing through the green of his forest stone Age ^ 
abode and crvishing down vast trees in many a sheltered glen or 
favorite hunting-ground. Many of the animals familiar to him re- 
treated to the warmer South, and he was forced gradually to ac- 
custom himself to a cold climate. This change ended the Early 
Stone Age, but the rude fist-hatchet of its hunters, and the bones 
of theTiug^ animals they slew, were sometimes left lying side 
by side in the sand and gravel far up on the valley slopes where 
in these prehistoric ages the rivers of France once flowed, 
before their deep modern beds had been eroded. And as these 
long-buried relics are brought forth to-day, they tell us the fas- 
cinating story of man's earliest progress in gaining control of 
the world about him. The coming of the ice, strange as it may 
seem, brought with it a new period of progress, which we call 
the Middle Stone Age. 

Section 3. The Middle Stone Age 

Unable to build himself a shelter from the cold, the hunter 15. The in- 
took refuge in the limestone caves (Fig. 4), where he and his Middle stone 
descendants continued to live for thousands of years. We can ^£^ IJlt^i.^lT 

■^ ncw prcsouic- 

imagine him at the door of his cave, carefully chipping off the chipped 
edge of his flint tools. He has left the rude old fist-hatchet far troduction of 
behind, for the hunter has finally discovered that h^ pressure with iv°"r^?mple- 
a hard piece of bone he can chip off a line of fine flakes along 
the edge of his flint tool and thus produce a much finer cutting 
edge (Fig. 5) than by chipping with blows (or percussion), as 
he formerly did. This discovery enabled him to produce a con- 
siderable variety of flint tools — chisels, drills and hammers, 
polishers and scrapers (Fig. 5). The new /r^j-j-wr^-chipped edges 



ments 



lO 



Ancient Times 



were sharp enough to cut and shape even bone, ivory, and 
especially reindeer horn. The mammoth (Fig. 10,7) furnished 
the hunter with ivory, and when he needed horn he found 
great herds of reindeer,^ driven southward by the ice, grazing 
before the entrance of his cavern (Fig. 10, J-5). 




Fig. 4. Cliffs in the South of France containing Caverns 

INHABITED BY MiDDLE StONE AGE MaN 

This district is filled with remains of Middle Stone Age man. The 
dark opening at A is the entrance to a famous cavern (called Font-de- 
Gatime) containing the finest wall paintings (§ 18) of the Middle Stone 
Age surviving in France. They are surpassed only by those of Altamira, 
Spain. On the floor are layers of rubbish containing human remains, 
as in Fig. 9. (Drawn from a photograph by Professor Osborn) 



16. The Mid- 
dle Stone 
Age hunter's 
new weapons 
and skin 
clothing 



Equipped with his new and keener tools, the hunter worked 
out- barbed ivory spear-points, which he mounted with long 
wooden shafts. He also discovered the bow and arrows, and 
he carried at his girdle a sharp flint dagger. For straightening 
his wooden spear-shafts and arrows he invented an ingenious 
shaft-straightener of reindeer horn. Another clever device of 

1 The reindeer was so plentiful in this age that French archaeologists often 
call it the " Reindeer Age." 



Early Mankind i7t Europe 



II 



horn or ivoiy was his new throwing-stick, by which he could 
hurl his long spear much farther and with greater power 
(Figs. 6 and 7) 
than he could be- 
fore. Fine ivory 
needles (Fig. 8) 
show that the 
hunter now pro- 
tected himself from 
cold, and from the 
brambles of the 
forest wilderness 
with clothing made 
by sewing together 
the skins of the 
animals he slew. 
Thus equipped, 
the hunter of the 
Middle Stone Age 
was a much more 
dangerous foe of 
the wild creatures 
than were his an- 
cestors of the Early 
Stone Age. In a 
single cavern in 
Sicily modern ar- 
chaeologists have 
dug out the bones 
of no less than two 
thousand hippo- 
potamuses which 
these Middle Stone Age hunters killed. In France one group 
of such men slew so many wild horses (Fig. 10,' <5) for food that 
the bones which they tossed about their camp fires gathered 




Fig. 5. 



Flint Tools and Weapons 
THE Middle Stone Age 



OF 



From right to left they include knives, spear- 
and arrow-points, scrapers, drills, and various 
edged tools. They show great skill and preci- 
sion in flaking. The fine edges have all been 
produced by chipping off a line of flakes along 
the margin, seen especially in the long piece at 
the right. This chipping is done by presstire. 
The brittleness of flint is such that if a hard 
piece of bone is pressed firmly against a flint 
edge, a flake of flint, often reaching far back 
from the edge, will snap off in response to 
increasing pressure. This was a great im- 
provement over the earliest method by striking 
{percussion., Figs. 2 and 3) 



17. Life of 
the Middle 
Stone Age 
hunter 



12 Ancient Times 

in masses forming a layer in some places six feet thick and 
covering a space about equal to four modern city lots of 
fifty by two hundred feet Among such deposits excavators 
have found even the bone whistle with which the returning 
hunter announced his coming to the hungry family waiting 
in the cave (Fig. 4). On his arrival there he found his home 
surrounded by revolting piles of garbage. Amid foul odors 



^& 




Fig. 6. Modern Eskimo Native hurling a Spear with a 
Throwing-Stick 

The spear lies in a channel in the throwing-stick {a), which the hunter 
grasps at one end. At the outer end {b) of the throwing-stick is a hook 
(cf. Fig. 7, B) against which the butt of the spear lies, and as the hunter 
throws forward his arm, retaining the throwing-stick in his hand and 
allowing the spear to go, the throwing-stick acts like an elongation of 
his arm, giving great sweep and propelling power as the spear is dis- 
charged. Modern schoolboys would not find it hard to make and use 
such a throwing-stick (see § 16) 

of decaying flesh this savage European crept into his cave- 
dwelling at night, litde realizing that, many feet beneath the 
cavern floor on which he slept, lay the remains of his ancestors 
in layer upon layer, the accumulations of thousands of years 

(Fig. 9). 
18. Discov- It is not a little astonishing to find that these Middle Stone 

Stone Age * -^S^ hunters could already carve (Fig. 7), draw (Fig. 10), and 
art— carv- ^^^^ Ttdiut with considerable skill. A Spanish nobleman, in- 

ings, draw- ^ ^ ^ _ 

ings,and vcstigating a cavern on his estate in Northern Spain, was at 
pai ings ^^^ ^.^^ digging among the accumulations on the floor of the 



Early Mankind in Europe 



13 



cave, where he found flint and bone im- 
plements, when his little daughter, who 
was playing about in the gloom of 
the cavern, suddenly shouted, " Toros ! 
toros ! " C' Bulls I bulls ! "). At the same 
time she pointed to the ceiling. The 
startled father, looking up, beheld a 
never-to-be-forgotten sight which at once 
interrupted his flint-digging. In a long 
line stretching far across the ceiling of 
the cavern was a vast procession of 
bison bulls painted in well-preserved col- 
ors on the rock. For at least ten thou- 
sand years no human eye had beheld 
these cave paintings of a vanished race 
of prehistoric men, till the eye of a child 
rediscovered them. 

Other evidences of higher life among 
these early men are few indeed. Never- 
theless, even these ancient men of the 
Middle Stone Age believed in divine 
beings ; they already had a crude idea 
of the life of the soul, or of the de- 
parted person after death. Dressed in 
his customary ornaments, equipped at 
least wdth a few flint implements, and 
protected by a rough circle of stones, 
the departed hunter was buried in the 
cave beneath the hearth where he had 
so often shared the results of the hunt 
with his family. Here the bodies of 
these primitive men are found at the 
present day, lying in successive strata 
of refuse which continued to collect for 
ages, the lowest bodies sometimes far 



\ 

A B 

Fig. 7. A Throwing- 
Stick once used by 
A Hunter of the 
Middle Stone Age 

Two views of the same 
stick, seen from front 
[A) and side (B). It is 
carved of reindeer horn 
to represent the head 
and forelegs of an ibex. 
Observe hook at the top 
of B for holding the butt 
of the spear-shaft, as in 
Fig. 6. The throwing- 
stick and the bow were 
man's earhest devices 
for propelHng his weap- 
ons with speed 



19. Religion 
and life here- 
after, in the 
Middle Stone 
Age 



14 



Ancient Times 



20. Retreat 
of the ice ; 
dawn of the 
Late Stone 
Age 



down at the bottom of the deep accumulations which gathered 
over them (Fig. 9). 

The signs left by the ice, and still observable in Europe, would 
lead us to think that it slowly withdrew northward to its present 
latitude probably not less than some ten thousand years ago. 
The retreat of the ice was due to the fact that the climate 
again grew warmer and became what it is to-day. At this 
point, therefore, the men of the Middle Stone Age, whose story 

we have been follow- 
ing in France, entered 
"^^ upon natural conditions 
in Europe like those 
of to-day. They had, 
meantime, maintained 
steady progress in the 
production of tools and 
implements with which 
to carry on their strug- 
gle for existence and 
to wring subsistence 
from the world around them. That progress now carried man 
into the third great period of the Stone Age, which we may 
call the Late Stone Age.-^ 



Fig. 8. Ivory Needle of the 
Middle Stone Age 

Such needles are found still surviving in 
the rubbish in the French caverns, where 
the wives of the prehistoric hunters lost 
them and failed to find them again twenty 
thousand years ago. They show that these 
women were already sewing together the 
skins of wild animals as clothing 



Section 4. The Late Stone Age. 

21. Distribu- The Late Stone Age remains of man's life are discovered 
ing"remahis^ widely distributed throughout a large part of Europe. In our 
of Late Stone study of such remains we must reo^ard Europe as a whole, 

Age man in -^ J5 r j 

Europe and not confine ourselves to France and its vicinity, as here- 

tofore. Especially beside watercourses, lakes, and inlets of the 



1 The Stone Age periods are as follows : 

Early Stone Age (stone edge made by striking, or peraissioti) 
Middle Stone Age (chipped stone edge made by pressure) 

Late Stone Age (stone edge made by grinding) 



Called Paleolithic Age 
by archaeologists. 

Called Neolithic Age by 
archaeologists. 




Fig. 9. A Cross Section showing the Layers of Rubbish 

AND THE Human Remains in a Middle Stone Age Cavern 

(After D^chelette) 

This cavern is at Grimaldi on the Italian coast of the Mediterranean, 
just outside of France. The entrance is at the left and the back wall 
at the right. We see the original rock floor at the bottom, and above 
it the layers of accumulations, 30 feet deep (§ 17). The black lines A 
to / represent layers of ashes, etc., the remains of nine successive 
hearth-fires, each of which must have been kept going by the natives 
for many years. The thicker (lightly shaded) layers consisted of bones 
of animals, rubbish, and roclcs which had fallen from the roof of the 
cavern in the course of ages. The lowermost layers (below /) con- 
tained bones of the rhinoceros (representing a warm climate), while the 
uppermost layers contained bones of the reindeer (indicating a cold 
climate). Two periods, the Early and the Middle Stone Age, are thus 
represented ; the Early Stone Age below, the Middle Stone Age (or 
Reindeer Age, § 1 5) above. Five burials were found by the excavators 
in the layers B, C, H, and /; layer C contained the bodies of two 
children. The lowermost burial (in /) was 25 feet below the surface of 
the accumulations in the cave. Such prehistoric skulls and bones show 
that several different races followed each other in Europe during the 
Stone Age. The space required and the difficulties involved in their 
discussion have compelled their omission in this volume. Hence the 
successive culture stages have been presented without reference to race 

15 






Fig. io. Carvings in Ivory (i and 3-7) and in Stone of 

Cavern Walls (2), made by the Hunters of the Middle 

Stone Age 

The oldest works of art by man, made ten or fifteen thousand years ago. 
7, reindeer and salmon — hunter's and fisherman's talisman; 2, bison 
bull at bay ; j, grazing reindeer ; 4, running reindeer ; 5, head of woman, 
front view and profile ; <5, head of wild horse whinnying ; 7, mammoth, 
showing huge tusks and long hair — an animal long since extinct 

16 



Early Manki7id in Ei^rope 



17 




sea these early communities throughout most of Europe located 
their settlements. It is, however, impossible to determine the 
different races and peoples in various parts of Europe in the 
Late Stone Age. 

The earliest of such Late Stone 
Age settlements are found on the 
shores of Denmark, where the 
wattle huts (Fig. 11) of the prehis- 
toric Norsemen stretched in strag- 
gling lines far along the sea beach. 
We do not know the race of these 
earliest Norsemen, but we can see 
that they w^ere both fislierme^and 
hunters. Thgy already possessed 
rude boats from which they were 
able to secure myriads of oysters 
near the shore, or even to push 
timidly out into deep water for 
other shellfish. On shore the 
hunter followed the wild boar and 
the wild bull (Fig. 1 2) in the neigh- 
boring forests, and brought down 
the waterfowl in the marshes. The 
air was keen — possibly a little 
colder than now. On their return 
at twilight the hunters and fisher- 
men, crouching about the fire, de- 
voured their prey, tossing aside 
the oyster shells and the bones of 
deer and wild boar, which formed 
a circle of very ill-smelling food 
refuse about the fire. 

This refuse gathered in ridges parallel with the shore-line 
and hundreds of feet long (Fig. 13), marking the line of 
fires which once gleamed along the shores of prehistoric 



22. Earliest 
settlements 
of the Late 
Stone Age 
found in 
Denmark 



Fig. 1 1 , Plan of Remains 

of^ A Late Stone Age 

Hut 

The circle of stones sur- 
rounded the base of the walls. 
Beside the door (at the left) 
is a rough stone hearth, placed 
there in order to allow the 
smoke to escape through the 
door, chimneys having not 
yet been devised. The walls 
were of wattle (interwoven 
reeds), made tight by daub- 
ing with clay. The rubbish 
found in the circle sometimes 
contains patches of burned 
clay, bearing on one side the 
indented pattern of the basket- 
like wattle and on the other 
the impression of the human 
fingers which pressed the clay 
on the walls thousands of 
years ago. The fire which 
destroyed the hut baked the 
clay plaster to pottery 




8 






G 




Fig. 12. Skeleton of a Wild Bull bearing the Marks of 

THE Late Stone Age Hunters' Arrows which killed him in 

the Danish Forests some Ten Thousand Years ago 

A Late Stone Age hunter (§ 22) shot him in the back near the spine 
(see upper white ring on skeleton). The wound healed, leaving a scar 
on the rib {A^ above). Another hunter later shot him, and this time sev- 
eral arrows pierced his vitals. One of them, however, struck a rib (see 
lower white ring on skeleton) and broke off. Both sides of this wound, 
still unhealed, with the broken flint arrowhead still filling it, are shown 
above in B and C. While the wounded bull was trying to swim across 
a neighboring lake he died and his body sank to the bottom, and the 
pursuing hunter, on reaching the lake, found no trace of him. In the 
course of thousands of years the lake slowly filled up, and water 10 feet 
deep was followed by dry peat of the same depth, covering the skeleton 
of the bull. Here he was found some years ago (1905), and with him 
were the flint arrowheads that had killed him. His skeleton, still bear- 
ing the marks of the flint arrowheads {A^ B, C), was removed and set 
up in the Museum at Copenhagen 
18 



Early Mankind in Europe 



19 



remains from the life of these earliest Norsemen. The shells 
and bones reveal how extensive was their control over the wild 



Denmark. Each of these shell-heaps is to-day a storehouse of 23. The shell- 
heaps of 

Denmark and 
their revela- 
tions 

life about them. The marks of animal teeth on many a bone 
show us how the jackal s oi the neighboring forest crept up to 
gnaw the bones along the margin of the heap ; and, slowly 
growing more and more familiar with their human neighbors, 




^f\ ftH«,\ 



Fig. 13. Ridge composed of the Food Refuse of Late 
Stone Age Man on the Coast of Denmark 

The ridge on the top of the hill at the right stretches along the margin 
of a depression (at the left), which was once a shallow inlet of the sea 
but is now filled up and has become a hayfield (notice the hay wagon). 
Such a ridge made up chiefly of oyster shells is sometimes over half a 
mile long and over thirty paces wide and may contain a hundred thousand 
stone tools, weapons, and fragments of pottery 



these wild beasts at last remained by the fireside, to become 
the loyal companions of man, the earliest domestic animal, which 
to-day we call the dog. 

Bits of burned clay and broken pots, still lying in these 
shell-heaps, show us that these early Norsemen had already 
gained knowledge, probably from the South, of the hardening 
quality of clay when exposed to fire, and they were now able 
to make rude kettles of burned clay, which we call pottery, 
the earliest in Europe.-^ This is one of the most important 

1 Pottery was probably invented independently in many different regions of 
the world. The endeavor to make a water-tight, fireproof kettle by smearing a 
basket with clay would result in pottery when the attempt was made to heat 
water in it over a fire. 



24. Indus- 
tries revealed 
by the shell- 
heaps of 
Denmark : 
earliest pot- 
tery in 
Europe ; 
ground stone 
tools 



20 



Ancient Times 



25. Tools of 
the Late 
Stone Age 



26. Effective- 
ness of stone 
tools 



27. Swiss 
lake-villages 
of the Late 
Stone Age 



innovations of the Late Stone Age. j^potbeHmportant achieve- 
ment marked the beginning of this age. This vv^as the discovery 
that the edge of a stone tool might be ground upon a whetstone, 
precisely as we grind a steel tool at the present day. In The 
shell-heaps we find the earliest heavy stone axes with a ground 
edge (Fig. 16, 5). They made the man of the Late Stone Age 
vastly more successful in his control of the world about him. 

His list of tools as he went about his work was now almost 
as complete as that of the modern carpenter. It included, 
besides the ax, likewise chisels, knives, drills, saws, and whet- 
stones, made mostly of flint but sometimes of other hard 
stones. Our ancient craftsman had now learned also to at- 
tach a wooden handle by lashings around the ax-head, or 
even to bore a hole in the ax-head and insert the handle 
(Fig. 16,5). These tools as found to-day often display a polish 
due to the wear which they have undergone in the hands of 
the user. 

It is a mistake to suppose that such stone tools were wholly 
crude and ineffective. A recent experiment in Denmark has 
shown that a modern mechanic with a stone ax, although un- 
accustomed to the use of stone tools, was able, in ten work- 
ing hours, to cut down and convert into logs twenty-six pine 
trees eight inches in thickness. Indeed, the entif-e work of 
getting out the timber and building a house %vas done by one 
mechanic with stone tools in eighty-one days. It was therefore 
quite possible for the men of the Late Stone Age to build 
comfortable dwellings and to attain a degree of civilization far 
above that of savages. 

This step, however, we are not able to follow among the 
shell-heaps of Denmark. The most plentiful traces of the 
earliest wooden houses are to be found in Switzerland, whither 
we must now go. Here the house-building communities of the 
Late Stone Age, desiring to make themselves safer from attack 
by man and beast, built their villages out over the Swiss lakes. 
They erected their dwellings upon platforms supported over 



Early Mankind in Europe 



21 



the water by piles which they drove into the lake bottom. In 
long lines such lake-villages, or groups oi pile-dwellings, as they 
are called, fringed the shores of the Swiss lakes (Fig. 14). In 
a few cases they grew to a considerable size. At Wangen not 




Fig. 14. 



Restoration of a Swiss Lake-Dwellers' 
Settlement 



The lake-dwellers felled trees with their stone axes (Fig. 16,5) and cut 
them into piles some 20 feet long, sharpened at the lower end. These 
they drove several feet into the bottom of the lake, in water 8 or 10 feet 
deep. On a platform supported by these piles they then built their 
houses. The platform was connected with the shore by a bridge, which 
may be seen here on the right. A section of it could be removed at 
night for protection. The fish nets seen drying at the rail, the " dug- 
out " boat of the hunters who bring in the deer, and many other things 
have been found on the lake bottom in recent times 



less than fifty thousand piles were driven into the bottom of 
the lake for the support of the village (see remains of such 
piles in Fig. 15). 

In so far as we can judge, these lake-dwellers lived a life 28. Life of 
of enviable peace and prosperity. Their houses were comfort- lake-dwellers 
able shelters, and they were furnished with plentiful wooden 



22 



Ancient Times 



furniture and implements, wooden pitchers and spoons, besides 
pottery dishes, bowls, and jars (Fig. i6, z, 2, j). Although 
roughly made without the use of the potter's wheel (§ ^:^, and 
unevenly burned without an oven (Fig. 48), pottery vessels 
added much to the convenience of the house. The waters 
under the setdement teemed with fish, which were caught 




Fig. 15. Surviving Remains of a Swiss Lake-Village 

After an unusually dry season the Swiss lakes fell to a very low level 
in 1854, exposing the lake bottom with the remains of the piles which 
once supported the lake villages along the shores. They were thus dis- 
covered for the first time. On the old lake bottom, among the projecting 
piles, were found great quantities of implements, tools, and furniture, 
like those in Fig. 16, including the dugouts and nets of Fig. 14, wheat, 
barley, bones of domestic animals, woven flax, etc. {§ 29). There they 
had been lying some five thousand years. Sometimes the objects were 
found in two distinct layers, the lower (earlier) containing only stone 
tools, and the upper (later) containing bronze tools, which came into the 
lake-village at a later age and fell into the water on top of the layer 
of old stone tools already lying on the bottom of the lake (see § 329) 



29. Domesti- 
cation of wild 
grains and 
beginning of 
agriculture ; 
flax and 
weaving 



with a bone hook through a trapdoor in the floor of the 
house, or snared in nets which the possession of flax, as we 
shall see, enabled the lake-villagers to make. 

While he had thus not ceased to be a fisherman and hunter, 
the lake-dweller now discovered other sources of food. For 
thousands of years the women of these early ages had gath- 
ered the seeds of wild grasses to be crushed between two 
stones and made into rude cakes. They now gradually learned 



Early Mankind in Europe 



23 



that the growth of such wild grasses on the margins of the 
forest and the shores of the lake might be artificially aided. 

From such beginnings it was but a step to drop the seed 30. Cultiva- 
into the soil at the proper season, to cultivate it, and to harvest Sey, ^V^' 

wheat in the 
Late Stone 
Age 




Fig. 16. Part of the Equipment of a Late Stone Age 
Lake-Dweller 

This group contains the evidence for three important inventions made 
or received by the men of the Late Stone Age '.firsts pottery jars, like 
2 and J, with rude decorations, the oldest baked clay in Europe, and 7, 
a large kettle in which the lake-dwellers' food was cooked; second^ 
ground-edged tools like 4, a stone chisel with ground edge (§ 24), 
mounted in a deerhorn handle like a hatchet, or 5, stone ax with a 
ground edge, and pierced with a hole for the ax handle (the houses of 
Fig. 14 were built with such tools) ; and third, weaving, as shown by 6, a 
spinning "whorl" of baked clay, the earhest spinning wheel. When 
suspended by a rough thread of flax 18 to 20 inches long, it was given 
a whirl which made it spin in the air like a top, thus rapidly twisting the 
thread by which it was hanging. The thread when sufficiently twisted 
was wound up, and another length of 18 to 20 inches was drawn out 
from the unspun flax to be similarly twisted. One of these earliest spin- 
ning wheels has been found in the Swiss lakes with a spool of flaxen 
thread still attached. (From photograph loaned by Professor Hoernes) 

the yield. When they had learned to do this, the women of 
these lake-dwellers were already agriculturists. The grains 
which they planted werebarleyT'wheafcj-aiid stsme millet.^ This 

1 Oats and lye, however, were still unknown, and came in much later. 



24 



Ancient Times 



31. Social 
effects of 
agriculture 



32. Domesti- 
cation of 
sheep, goats, 
and cattle 



new source of food was a plentiful one ; more than a hundred 
bushels of grain were found by the excavators on the lake bot- 
tom under the vanished lake-village of Wangen. Up the hillside 
now stretched also the lake-dweller's little field of flax beside 
the growing grain. His women sat spinning flax (Fig. 16, 6) 
before the door, and the rough skin -clothing of their ancestors 
(Fig, 8) had_given way to garments of. woven stuff. 

These fields were an additional reason for the permanency 
of the lake-dweller's home. It was necessary for him to remain 
near the little plantation for which his women had hoed the 
ground, that they might care for it and gather the grain when 
it ripened. As each household gradually gained an habitual 
right to cultivate a particular field, they came to set up a per- 
petual claim to it, and thus arose the ownership of land. It 
was to be a frequent source of trouble in the future career of 
man, and the chief cause of the long struggle between the rich 
and the poor — a struggle which was earlier unknown, when 
land was free to all. 

On the green Swiss uplands above the lake-villages were 
now feeding the descendants of the wild creatures which the 
Middle Stone Age hunters had pursued through the forests 
and mountains ; for the mountain sheep and goats and the wild 
cattle (Fig. 12), like the dog on the shores of Denmark (§ 23), 
had slowly learned to dwell near man and submit to his con- 
trol.^ For a long time, however, the Late Stone Age man in 
Europe was still without any beast of burden. For thousands 
of years his ancestors of the Middle Stone Age had pursued 
the wild horse for food (§ 17), but had made no effort to 
tame and subdue the animal.^ 



1 Domestication of these animals, like the cultivation of grain and flax, was 
much older in the Orient than in the Late Stone Age in Europe ; but it is still 
a question just how the early Europeans received these things from the Orient. 
(See § 49.) 

2 The draft horse, one of the most important influences in the history of 
civilization, came in comparatively late, from the Northern Orient, as we shall 
see (§247). 



Early Mankind in Europe 2$ 

The strong limbs of the once wild ox (Fig. 1 2), however, 33. Earliest 
made him well adapted to draw the hoe of Late Stone Age fpfo^'""^^^ 
man across the field — a hoe, to be sure, equipped with two ^^"•t"'^^" 
handles (Fig. 44), which thus became the earliest plow, while 
ihejDx: which was tamed to draw it became the earliest draft 
animal_of_ Europe. Thus "plow culture" slowly replaced the 
cruder and more limited " hoe culture " ^ carried on by the 
women. It was at this point, therefore, that the early European 
passed far beyond our own North American Indians, who 
remained until the discovery of America entirely without draft 
animals, and hence practiced only "hoe culture." 

Agriculture, requiring as it now did the driving and control 34. Social 
of large draft animals, exceeded the strength of the primitive «piow 
woman, and the primitive man was obliged to give up more ggttSd aV?^ 
and more of his hunting freedom and devote himself to the cultural life 
field. Thus the hunter of thousands of years became an 
agriculturist, a farmer. By this time a large part of the Late 
Stone Age Europeans had adopted fixed abodes, following the 
settled agricultural life in and around villages (§ 38). 

On the other hand, the domestication of grass-eating animals, 35. Flocks 
feeding on the grasslands, created not only a new industry the wander- 
but also a second class of men who might still follow a roving j"ff'Jf°he'^ 
life, leading their flocks about and pasturing them where the shepherd 
grasslands were too poor for agriculture. Such shepherd people 
we call nomads, and they still exist to-day. Without any fixed 
dwelling places, accompanied by their wives and children, they 
lead a wandering life, driving their flocks from pasture to pas- 
ture. These nomad peoples took possession of the eastern 
grasslands stretching from the Danube eastward along the 
north side of the Black Sea and thence far over into Asia. 
Their life always remained ruder and less civilized than that 
of the agriculturalists and townsmen (see § 136). 

1 " Hoe culture " is the term applied to agriculture carried on by hand, 
without any draft animals; that is, entirely with the hoe, 9,5 contrasted with 
cultivation by the plow drawn by an animal 



26 Ancient Times 

36. Age-long Thus developed side by side two methods of life — the settled, 
tweei'^'^^' agricultural life and the wandering, nomad life. The impor- 
nomads and tance of understanding these will be evident when we realize 

townsmen 1 r 

that the grasslands became the home of a numerous unsettled 
population. Thus such grasslands have become like overfilled 
reservoirs of nomad peoples, who have periodically overflowed 
and overwhelmed the towns and the agricultural settlements. 
Many epochs of human history can be understood only as we 
bear these facts in mind, especially as we shall see later Europe 
invaded over and over again by the hordes of intruding nomads 
from the eastern grasslands (§§ 370-373 and Section 99). 

37. Buildings The settled communities of the Late Stone Age at last began 
turtln^Late' ^'^ \t.2M& behind them more impressive monuments than pottery 
Stone Age ^^^ stone tools. In all Europe before this there had existed 

Europe 

only fragile houses and huts. But toward the close of the Late 
Stone Age the more powerful chiefs in the large settlements 
learned to erect great tombs, built of enormous blocks of stone. 
They fringe the western coast of Europe from Spain to the 
southern Scandinavian shores. There are at the present day no 
less than thirty-four hundred stone tombs of this age, some 
of considerable size, on the Danish island of Seeland alone. 
In France (Fig. 17) they exist in vast numbers and imposing 
size, and likewise in England. The often enormous blocks in 
these structures (Figs. 18, 20, and 21) were mostly left in the 
rough, but if cut at all, it was done with stone chisels. Such 
structures are not of masonry, that is, of smoothly cut stone 
laid with mortar. They can hardly be called works of great 
architecture, — a thing which did not as yet exist in Europe. 
We shall first meet it in the Orient (§95). 

38. The When we look at such buildings of the Late Stone Age still 
S Europ°eT^ Surviving, they prove to us the existence of the earliest towns in 
rise of gov- Europe. For near every great group of stone tombs there must 

ernment ^ ,,,.-, i , m i 1 

have been a town where the people lived who built the tombs. 
The remains of some of these towns have been discovered, and 
they have been dug out from the earth covering them. Almost 



Early Mankind in Europe 



27 



all traces of them had disappeared, but enough remained to show 
that they had been surrounded by walls of earth, with a ditch 
on the outside and probably with a wooden stockade along the 
top of the earth wall. They show us that men were learning to 
live together in considerable numbers and to work together on 




,^ ,.^M^-^^^ 



(4^f.c,mm .V ^-^k^^'Pr^-WB^ 



'V:^^::^^^ '^-^i- 



FiG. 17. Late Stone Age Tomb in France 

It was in such tombs that dead chiefs of the Late Stone Age were buried. 
The stones, weighing even as much as 40 tons apiece, were sometimes 
dragged many miles from the nearest quarry ; but much heavier ones 
were also used (see Fig. 18). These blocks were not smoothed but left 
rough as they came from the mountain side 



a large scale. It required organization and successful manage- 
ment of men to raise the earth walls of such a town, to 
drive the fifty thousand piles supporting the lake setdement at 
Wangen (Switzerland), or to move the enormous blocks of stone 
for building the chieftain's tomb (Figs. 17, 18, 20, and 21). 
In such achievements we see the beginnings of government, 



28 



Ancient Times 



39. Festivals 
and athletic 
contests 
shown by the 
stone build- 
ings of Late 
Stone Age 
Europe 



organized under a leader. Many little states, each consisting 
of a fortified town with its surrounding fields, and each under 
a chieftain, must have grown up in Late Stone Age Europe. 
Out of such beginnings nations were yet to grow. 

Furthermore, these stone buildings furnish us very interesting 
glimpses into the life of the Late Stone Age towns. Some of 
them suggest to us pictures of whole communities issuing from 
the towns on feast days and marching to such places as the 




Fig. 18. Fallen Memorial Stone of the Late Stone Age 
IN Northern France 

This vast block once stood upright, having been erected by the men 

of the Late Stone Age as a tombstone. It is almost 65 feet long and 

weighs some 300 tons. The fall has broken it into three pieces 



huge stone circles at Stonehenge (Fig. 20). Here they held 
memorial contests, chariot races, and athletic games in honor of 
the dead chief buried within the stone circles. The domestic 
horse had now reached western Europe, and the straight chariot 
course, nearly two miles long, still to be seen at Stonehenge, 
must have resounded with the shouts of the multitudes ■ as the 
competing chariots thundered down the course.-^ The long 
processional avenues, marked out by mighty stones, in north- 
west France (Fig. 21) must have been alive with festival proces- 
sions and happy multitudes every season for centuries. To-day, 
silent and solitary, they stretch for miles across the fields of 

^ One of the chariots later used on such a course may be seen in Fig. 1^1,. 



Early Mankind in Europe 



29 




the French peasants, a kind of voiceless echo of forgotten 
human joys, of ancient customs and beliefs long revered by 
the vanished races of prehistoric Europe. 

While such monuments show us the Late Stone Age com- 40. Rise of 
munities at play, other remains reveal them at their work. Each outgoing 
town was largely a home manufacturer and produced what it A^^e-^minL 
needed for itself. Men were beginning to adopt trades ; for as a trade 
example, some men 
were probably wood- 
workers, others were 
potters, and still others 
were already miners. 
These early miners 
burrowed far into. the 
earth in order to reach 
the finest deposits of 
flint for their stone 
tools. In the under- 
ground tunnels of the 
ancient flint mines 
at Brandon, England, 
eighty worn picks of 
deerhorn were found 
in recent times. At 
one place the roof 
had caved in, cutting 

off an ancient gallery of the mine. In this gallery, behind the 
fallen rocks, modern archaeologists found two more deerhorn 
picks. These picks bore a coat of chalk dust in which were 
still visible the marks of the workmen's fingers, left there as 
they last laid down the implements, many thousands of years 
ago. In Belgium even the skeleton of one of these ancient 
miners, who had been crushed by falling rocks, was found in 
the mine with his deerhorn pick still lying between his hands 
(Fig. 22). 



Fig. 19. Vertebra of a Late Stone 

Age Man with a Flint Arrowhead 

sticking in it 

The arrowhead {A) struck the victim full in 
the pit of the stomach. It must have been 
driven by a heavy bow, for it passed clear 
through to the vertebra, producing perito- 
nitis and death. (Photograph furnished by 
the great French archaeologist Dechelette, 
who himself fell in battle not long after 
sending this photograph to the author) 




3° 



Early Mankind in Europi 



31 



Exchange and traffic between the communities already existed. 
This primitive commerce carried far and wide an especially fine 
variety of French flint, recognizable to-day by its color. The 
amber gathered on the shores of the Baltic was already passing 
from hand to hand and thus found its way southward. Stone 
implements found on the islands around Europe show that 
men of this age lived on such islands, and they must have had 
boats sufficiently strong to carry them thither. Several of the 



41. Com- 
merce and 
intercourse 
in the Late 
Stone Age 




^1 -^^^^m 




Fig. 21. Avenues of the Late Stone Age in Northern 
France (Carnac, Brittany) 

The tall stones mark out avenues nearly 2^ miles long, containing nearly 
three thousand stones. These avenues were used for festival proces- 
sions or for races, as on the course at Stonehenge (Fig. 20 and § 39), 
at the religious celebrations of the Late Stone Age communities 



dugouts (Fig. 14) of the lake-dwellers have been found lying 
on the lake bottom among the piles, but vessels with sails had 
not yet been devised in Europe. 

The business of such an age was of course very primitive. 42. Primi- 
There were no metals and no money. Buying and selling were methods of 
only exchange of one kind of wares for another kind. In all ^^^^ |u°"pe 
Europe therpjyvns no writings nor did the continent of Europe 
^z^r devise a system of writing. If credit was given, the trans- 
action might be recorded in a few strokes scratched in the mud 
plaster of the wattle house wall (Fig. 11) to aid the memory 
as to the number of fish or jars of grain to be paid for later. 



6^ 



Ancient Times 



43. Wars of 
the Late 
Stone Age 



But the intercourse between these prehistoric communities 
was not ahvays peaceful. The earthen walls and wooden stock- 
ades with which such towns were protected (§ 38) show us 
that the chieftain's war-horn must often have summoned these 
people from feasts and athletic games, or from the fields and 
mines, to expel the invader. Grim evidence of these earliest 
wars of Europe still survives. A skull taken out of a tomb of 
this age in Sweden contains a flint arrowhead still sticking in 




Fig. 22. Skeleton of a Miner of the Late Stone Age 

The skeleton of this ancient miner was found lying on the floor of a 
flint mine in Belgium, under the rocks which had caved in and crushed 
him. Before him, just as it dropped from his hands at the instant 
of the cave-in, lies the double-pointed pick of deerhorn (§ 40) with 
which he was loosening the lumps of flint from their chalk bed, when 
the rock ceiling fell upon him and he was killed 



44. Late 

Stone Age 
Europe and 
the Orient 



one eyehole, while in France more than one human vertebra 
has been found with a flint arrowhead driven deep into it 
(Fig. 19). A stone coffin found in a Scottish cairn contained 
the body of a man of huge size, with one arm almost severed 
from the shoulder by the stroke of a stone ax. A fragment of 
stone broken out of the ax blade still remained in the gashed 
arm bone. 

After fifty thousand years of progress carried on by their 
own efforts, the men of Stone Age Europe seemed now (about 
3000 B.C.) to have reached a point where they could advance 



cal summary 



Early Mankind in Europe 33 

jio^Jaitheiu^ They were still ^Ni'&iOMt jvriiiu^ for making the 
records of business, government, and tradition ; they were still 
without metgJs^ with which to make tools and to develop indus- 
tries and manufactures ; and they had no sailiiig ships m which 
to carry on commerce. Without these thinsrs they could go no 
farther. All these and many other possessions of civilization 
came to early Europe from the nearer Orient,^ the lands around 
the eastern end of the""Mediterranean (see map, p. loo). In 
order to understand the further course of European history, 
we must therefore turn to the Orient, whence came these 
indispensable things which made it possible for our European 
ancestors to gain the civilization we have inherited. 

As we go to the Orient let us remember that we have been 45. Histori- 
f ollowing man's prehisto7ic progress as it went on for some fifty 
thousand years after he began making stone implements. In 
the Orient, during the thousand years from 4000 to 3000 B.C. 
(see diagram, Fig. 38), men slowly built up a high civilization, 
forming the beginning of the Historic Epoch.^ Civilization thus 
began in the Orient^ and it is between five and six thousand 
years old. There it long flourished and produced great and 

1 Metal was introduced in sozitheastem Europe about 3000 B.C. and passed 
like a slow wave, moving gradually westward and northward across Europe. It 
probably did not reach Britain until about 2000 b. c. Hence we have included 
the great stone monuments of western Europe (like Stonehenge) in our survey 
of Stone Age Europe. They were erected long after southeastern Europe had 
received metal, but before metal came into common use in western Europe. 

^ The word " Orient" is used to-day to include Japan, China, and India. These 
lands make up 2, farther Orient. There is also a fiearer Orient, consisting of the 
lands around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, that is, Egypt and Western 
Asia, including Asia Minor. We shall use the word ''Orient" in this book to 
designate the nearer Orient. 

3 We may best describe the Historic Epoch by saying that it is the epoch 
beginning when written documents were first produced by man — documents 
which tell us in written words something of man's life and career. All that we 
know of man in the age previous to the appearance of writing has to be learned 
from weapons, tools, implements, buildings, and other things (bearing no writing) 
which he has left behind. These are the things from which we have been learn- 
ing something of the story of prehistoric Europe in Chapter I. The transition 
from the Prehistoric to the Historic Epoch was everywhere a slow and gradual 
one. In the Orient this transition took place in the thousand years between 
4000 and 3000 B.C. 



34 Ancient Times 

powerful nations, while the men of Late Stone Age Europe 
continued to live without metals or writing. As they gradually 
acquired these things, civilized leadership both in peace and 
war shifted slowly from the Orient to Europe. As we turn to 
watch civilization emerging in the East, with metals, govern- 
ment, writing, great ships, and many other creations of civiliza- 
tion, let us realize that its later movement will steadily carry us 
from east to west as we follow it from the Orient to Europe. 

QUESTIONS 

Section i . What progress in invention have you noticed in your 
own lifetime.'* Has every device or convenience man now possesses 
had to be invented in the same way ? Was there a time when man 
possessed none of these things t Did he have anyone to teach him } 
Describe the life of the Tasmanians in recent times. Describe pre- 
historic Europe and the life of the earliest men there. What three 
ages ensued.'' 

Section 2. Give examples of the discovery of man's great age 
on the earth. Describe the earliest stone weapon. About when did 
the Early Stone Age begin? (See map, p. 8, and read description.) 
What age did it introduce.'* Describe the life of the Early Stone 
Age hunter. What great change ended this age? Describe it. 

Section 3. Where did the Middle Stone Age hunters take 
refuge ? What improvement did they make in their stone tools 
(Fig. 5)? What new materials came in? What new inventions? 
Describe the results. Discuss Middle Stone Age art. Draw cross 
section of a cave with contents and describe (Fig. 9). What great 
change ended the Middle Stone Age, and when ? 

Section 4. Where were the earliest settlements of the Late 
Stone Age known to us ? Describe them and their remains. What 
new inventions came in ? Discuss carpentry with ground stone tools. 
Describe the lake-villages and life in them. Describe the domestication 
of grain and its social results. Describe the domestication of animals 
and the two resulting methods of life. Discuss stone structures and 
the life they reveal — industries, traffic, and war. What important 
things did the Late Stone Age in Europe still lack? Is civilization 
possible without these things ? Where did these things first appear ? 




PART II. THE ORIENT 
CHAPTER II 

THE STORY OF EGYPT: THE EARLIEST NILE-DWELLERS 
AND THE PYRAMID AGE 



Section 5. Egypt and its Earliest Inhabitants 

We are to begin our study of the early Orient in Egypt. 
The traveler who visits Egypt at the present day lands in a 
very modern-looking harbor at Alexandria (see map, p. 36). 
He is presently seated in a comfortable railway car in which 
we may accompany him as he is carried rapidly across a low, 
flat country stretching far away to the sunlit horizon. The 
wide expanse is dotted with little villages of dark mud-brick 
huts, and here and there rise groves of graceful date palms. 
The landscape is carpeted with stretches of bright and vivid 
green as far as the eye can see, and wandering through this 
verdure is a network of irrigation canals (Fig. 23). Brown- 
skinned men of slender build, with dark hair, are seen at inter- 
vals along the banks of these canals, swaying up and down as 
they rhythmically lift an irrigation bucket attached to a simple 

Note. The tiara, or diadem, at the top of this page was found resting on the 
head of an Egyptian princess of the Feudal Age as she lay in her coffin. The 
diadem had been placed there nearly four thousand years ago. It is in the form 
of a chaplet, or wreath, of star flowers wrought of gold and set with bright-colored 
precious stones, and is one of the best examples of the work of the Egyptian gold- 
smiths and jewelers (Fig. 47 and § 82). -it is shown here lying on a cushion. 

35 



46. Egypt of 
to-day 



36 



Ancient Times 



47. Its soil, 
shape, and 
area 




Fig. 23. An Egyptian Shadoof, the 
Oldest of Well Sweeps, irrigat- 
ing THE Fields 

The man below stands in the water, hold- 
ing his leather bucket {A). The pole {B) 
of the sweep is above him, with large ball 
of dried Nile mud on its lower end (C) 
as a lifting weight, or counterpoise, seen 
just behind the supporting post {D). This 
man lifts the water into a mud basin {E). 
A second man (in the middle) lifts it 
from this first basin {E) to a second 
basin {F) into which he is just empty- 
ing his bucket; while a third man {G) 
lifts the water from the middle basin {F) 
to the uppermost basin, {H) on the top of 
the bank, where it runs off to the left into 
trenches spreading over the fields. The 
low water makes necessary three succes- 
sive lifts (to E, to F, to H) without ceas- 
ing night and day for one hundred days 



device (Fig. 23) exactly 
like the well sweep of 
our grandfathers in New 
England. The irrigation 
trenches are thus kept 
full of water until the 
grain ripens. This shows 
us that Egypt enjoys 
no rain. 

The black soil we see 
from the train is unex- 
celled in fertility, and it 
is enriched each year by 
the overflow of the river, 
whose turbid waters rise 
above its banks every 
summer, spread far over 
the flats (Fig. 24), and 
stand there long enough 
to deposit a very thin 
layer of rich earthy 
sediment. This sedi- 
ment has built up the 
Nile Delta which we 
are now crossing. The 
Delta and the valley 
above, as far as the 
First Cataract, contain 
together over ten thou- 
sand square miles of 
cultivable soil, or some- 
what more than the 
state of Vermont. 

As our train ap- 
proaches the southern 



The Story of Egypt 



37 



point of the Delta we begin to see the heights on either side 48. The low 
of the valley into which the narrow end of the Delta merges. h?gh^de"ert ^ 
These heights (Figs. 2 4 and 69) are the plateau of the Sahara Des- Plateau 
ert, through which the Nile has cut a vast, deep trench as it winds 
its way northward from inner Africa. This trench, or valley, is 
seldom more than thirty miles wide, while the strip of soil on each 






^^^%M&^^^^' 









i^'\ 



Fig. 24. The Inundation seen from the Road to the 
Pyramids of Gizeh 

On the right is the road leading to the pyramids ; at the left the waters 
of the inundation cover the level floor of the Nile valley. In the distance 
is the desert plateau on which the pyramids stand. The trees and the 
small modern village just in front of the pyramids occupy part of the 
ground where once the royal city of the pyramid-builders stood (§ 75) 



side of the river rarely exceeds ten miles in width. On either 
edge of the soil strip one steps out of the green fields into the 
sand of the desert, which has drifted down into the trench ; 
or if one climbs the cliffs, forming the walls of the trench, he 
stands looking out over a vast waste of rocky hills and stretches 
of sand trembling in the heat of the blazing sunshine. 



e> 




38 Ancient Times 

49. The As we journey on let us realize that this valley can tell us 

Egyptians ^^^ unbroken story of human progress such as we can find no- 
where else. We look out upon the sandy margin of the desert, 
where there are thousands of low, undulating mounds covering 
the graves of the earliest ancestors 
^f^^^^^^J3S'd'SOL of the brown men we see in the 
Delta fields. When we have dug out 
such a grave to the bottom, we find 
lying there the ancient Nile peas- 
ant, surrounded by pottery jars and 
stone implements (Fig. 25). There 
he has been lying for over six thou- 
sand years, and these stone tools, 
which he used so long ago, tell us 

_ of generations of Nile-dwellers who. 

Fig. 25. Looking down ... ,1 t . o. a r 

INTO THE Grave of ^'^^ ^^^^ ^ate Stone Age men of 

A Late Stone Age Europe, lived without the use of metal. 

Egyptian Barley and split wheat ^ are some- 

An oval pit 4 or 5 feet deep times found in the jars around the 

(cf. Fig.38, /). The body is body (Fig. 25), for the dead were 
surrounded by pottery jars jj^^ ^.^j^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 

once containing food and ^^ •' 

drink. A few small objects buried them. These and fragments 

of copper have been found of linen found in such graves show 

even in the earliest of such ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^^^ j^ 

Lgyptian graves, which • •' ^ 

therefore belong to the end and flax came into Europe. These 

of the. Late Stone Age ancient Nile peasants were therefore 

^ watering their fields of flax and grain 
over six thousand years ago, just as the brown men whom the 

traveler sees from the car windows to-day are still doing. 

1 This split wheat is a variety which differs from our common wheat. The 
kernel is spUt into halves. When threshed, the two halves are still held together 
by the hull, and a second threshing or hard rubbing is necessary to break off 
this hull and get out the two half kernels. Split wheat is still raised in parts of 
Europe, especially for use in making starch, and is often called starch wheat. 
This was the earliest variety of wheat cultivated by man. It has recently been 
rediscovered growing in a wild state in Palestine. Barley and split wheat were 
the two leading grains used by early man in the oriental world. 



The Story of Egypt 



39 



51. Pictorial 
records 



The villages of low, mud-brick huts which flash by the car 50. Earliest 
windows furnish us also with an exact picture of those vanished fndYaxes^" 
prehistoric villages, the homes of the early Nile-dwellers who 
are still lying in yonder cemeteries on the desert margin. In 
each such village, six to seven thousand years ago, lived a local 
chieftain who controlled the irrigation trenches of the district. 
To him the peasants were obliged to carry every season a share 
of the grain and flax which they gathered from their fields; 
otherwise the supply of water for 
their crops' would be stopped, 
and they would ^ receive an un- 
pleasant visit from the chief- 
tain, demanding instant payment. 
These were the earliest taxes. 

Such transactions led to 
scratching a rude picture of 
the basket grain-measure and a 
number of strokes on the mud 
wall of the peasant's hut, in- 
dicating the number of measures 
of grain he had paid (cf. § 42). 
The use of these purely pictorial 
signs formed the earliest stage 
in the process of learning to 

write. Such pictorial writing is still in use among the un- 
civilized peoples in our own land. Thus, the Alaskan natives 
send messages in pictorial form, scratched on a piece of 
wood (Fig. 26). The exact words of the message are not 
represented. Fig. 26 might be read by one man, "No food 
in the tent," while another might read, '' Lack of meat in the 
wigwam." Such pictorial signs thus conveyed ideas without 
expressing the exact words. Among our own Indians the 
desire of a brave to record his personal exploits also led to 
pictorial records of them (Fig. 27). It should be noticed 
again that the exact words are not indicated by this record 



Fig. 26. Pictorial Message 

scratched on wood by 

Alaskan Indians 

A figure with empty hands hang- 
ing down helplessly, palms down, 
as an Indian gesture for uncer- 
tainty, ignorance, emptiness, or 
nothing, means '' no." A figure 
with one hand on its mouth 
means " eating " or " food." It 
points toward the tent, and this 
means " in the tent." The whole 
is a message stating, " (There is) 
no food in the tent" (§51) 



/ 



40 



Ancient Times 



52. First step 
leading from 
the pictorial 
to the pho- 
netic stage 



53. Second 
step leading 
from the pic- 
torial to the 
phonetic 
stage 




(Fig. 27), but the exploit is merely so suggested that it might 
be put into words in a number of different ways. The early 
Egyptian kings of six thousand years ago prepared strikingly 

similar picture records 
(Fig. 28). 

But this pictorial stage, 
beyond which native 
American records never 
passed, was not real 
writing. Two steps had 
to be taken before the 
picture records could 
become phonetic writ- 
ing. First, each object 
drawn had to gain a 
fixed form, always the 
same and always recog- 
nized as the sign for a 
particular word denot- 
ing that object. Thus, 
it would become a habit 
that the drawing of a 
loaf should always be 
read ''loaf," not ^^ bread" 
or " food " ; the sign for 
a leaf would always be 
read " leaf," not " foli- 



FiG. 27. Pictorial Record of the 

Victory of a Dakota Chief named 

Running Antelope 

This Dakota Indian prepared his autobi- 
ography in a series of eleven drawings, of 
which Fig. 27 is but one. It records how 
he slew five hostile braves in a single day. 
The hero, Running Antelope, with rifle in 
hand, is mounted upon a horse. His shield 
bears a falcon, the animal emblem of his 
family, while beneath the horse is a running 
antelope, which is of course intended to in- 
form you of the hero's name. We see the 
trail of his horse as he swept round the 
copse at the left, in which were concealed 
the five hostile braves whom he slew. Of 
these, one figure bearing a rifle represents 
all five, while four other rifles in the act 
of being discharged indicate the number 
of braves in the copse 



age. 

The seconi^^^X.^-^ then 

naturally followed ; that 
is, the leaf ^, for example, became the sign for the syllable 
"leaf" wherever it might occur. By the same process \M^ 



1 The author is of course obliged to use English words and syllables here, 
and consequently also signs not existing in Egyptian but devised for this 
demonstration. 



The Story of Egypt 



41 





K 


\\1^^ 


^% 


M 


i^ 


["A"^ 


^BjMi- 




^ Tj 




w 



might become the sign for the syllable 
'' bee '■ wherever found. Having thus a 
means of writing the syllables '' bee " and 
'' leaf," the next step was to put them 
together, thus, \^ %^, and they would 
then represent the word " belief." No- 
tice, however, that in the word "belief" 
the sign ^ has ceased to suggest the 
idea of an insect. It now represents only 
the syllable "be." That is to say, ^ has 
become a phonetic sign. 

If the writing of the Egyptian had 
remained merely a series of pictures, 
such words as " belief," " hate," " love," 
" beauty," and the like could never have 
been written.^ But when a large number 
of his pictures had become phonetic signs, 
each representing a syllable, it was possi- 
ble for the Egyptian to write any word 
he knew, whether the word meant a thing 
of which he could draw a picture or not. 
This possession of phonetic signs was 
what made real writing for the first time. 
It arose among these Nile-dwellers earlier 
than anywhere else in the ancient world. 

Egyptian writing contained at last over 
six hundred signs, many of them repre- 
senting whole syllables, like ^. The 
Egyptian scribe gradually learned many 
groups of such syllable signs. Each group, 
like \^ ^, represented a ivord. Writing 
thus became to him a large number of sign 
being a word ; and a series of such groups 

1 See the word '* beauty," the last three signs in the inscription over the ship 
(Fig. 41). 



net'ic signs 



Fig. 28. Example 

OF Egyptian Writ- 54. Advan- 

ING IN THE PiCTO- ^^S^ ^^. P^^" 

RiAL Stage 

Interpretation: Above 
is the falcon, symbol 
of a king (of. the fal- 
con on the shield of 
Running Antelope in 
Fig. 27), leading a hu- 
man head by a cord ; 
behind thehead aresix 
lotus leaves (each the 
sign for 1000) grow- 
ing out of the ground 
to which the head is 
attached ; below is a 
single-barbed harpoon 
head and a little rec- 
tangle (the sign of a 
lake). The whole tells 
the picture story that 
the falcon king led 
captive six thousand 
men of the land of the 
Harpoon Lake (§51) 

groups, each group 
formed a sentence. 



55. Syllable 
signs and 
sign-groups 



42 



Ancient Times 



56. Alpha- 
Letic signs, 
or letters 



Nevertheless, the Egyptian went still farther, for he finally 
possessed a series of signs, each representing only a letter \ 
that is, alphabetic signs, or, as we say, real letters. There were 
twenty-four letters in this alphabet, which was known in Egypt 



■^ = smooth breathing, like 
M h in "honor." As 


R = Ch (like ch in German 
^ "ich") 


vowel, see below 


A = y (in Greek times it 
1 was used as vowel) 


@ =kh (like ch in Scotch 


" loch " or German 




"Bach") 
— •— — s 


in back of throat ; 




not used in English 


n = s (originally of slightly 
different sound from 


■^ =■ w Oater C\ was also 
Jl used ; ( both signs 


the preceding) 


as vowels, see below) 

J- 


rTv-i=sh 






A = q (in Greek times also 


D =p 


used for k) 




^3^=k 


x.=^=f 






S =g 


^ = m (later r was also 

-Ms used for m) 




^ =t 


/v^AM^ = n 






s=^ = th 


<=> = r 






.:^=d 


<pi^^ = 1 in late times (origi- 




■^^^^ nally r or rw) 

ra =h 


"^ = dh or dsh (like j in 

( "jug") 



Fig. 29. The Egyptian Alphabet 

Each of these letters represents a consonant. The Egyptians of course 
pronounced their words with vowels as we do, but they did not rvrite the 
vowels. This will be clear by a study of Fig. 30. Just as the consonants 
w and jj/ are sometimes used as vowels in English, so three of the Egyp- 
tian consonants came to be employed as vowels in Greek times. The 
first letter (smooth breathing) was thus used as ^ or^; the second letter 
[y) as z; and the fourth [w) as ti or o (cf. Fig. 76) 



long before 3000 B.C. It was thus the earliest alphabet known. 
The Egyptian might then have written his language with twenty- 
four alphabetic letters (Fig. 29) if the sign-grouY) habit had not 
been too strong for the scribe, just as the /<?//^r-group habit is 





The Story of Egypt 43 

strong enough with us to-day to prevent the introduction of a 
simplified phonetic system of spelling English. If we smile at 
the Egyptian's cumbrous sign-groups, future generations may 
as justly smile at our often absurd letter-groups. 

The Egyptian soon devised a convenient equipment for writ- 57- Inven- 
ing. He found out that he could make an excellent paint or ing materials 
ink by thickening water with a litde vegetable gum and then ^"^^ and pen 

B 

' ' AAAA^A 

A/VWVS 
/VWW\ /VV\AAA 

Fig. 30. An Egyptian Word {A) and Two English 
Words {B) and (C) written in Hieroglyphic 

The first three signs in word A are ch-q-r (see Fig. 29) ; we do not know 
the vowels. The word means "pauper" (Hterally, "hungry") ; as it de- 
notes a person, the Egyptian adds a httle kneeling man at the end. Before 
him is another man with hand on mouth, an indication of hunger, thirst, 
or speech. These two are old pictorial signs surviving from the pictorial 
stage. Such pictorial signs at the end of a word have no phonetic value 
and are called determinatives. B is an English word spelled for illus- 
tration in hieroglyphic. The first three signs indicate the letters/-;/-^ 
(see Fig. 29), while the three wavy lines form the determinative for 
" water " ; hence p-n-d spells " pond." C is another English word in 
hieroglyphic. The first three signs indicate the letters_/^7«-;z (see Fig. 29), 
and the last sign is the determinative for "hunger" (see Fig. 30, A)\ 
hence y^/;z-;z spells "famine." With the alphabet (Fig. 29) and the 
above determinatives the student can put a number of English words 
into hieroglyphic ; for example, " man " {m-n and determinative of 
kneeling man, Fig. 30,^), "drink" {d-r-n-k and determinative of 
kneeling man with hand on mouth, Fig. 30, C), "speak" {s-p-k and 
same determinative), or " brook" {b-r-k and determinative for " water," 
as in " pond," Fig. 30, B) 

mixing in soot from the blackened pots over his fire. Dipping 
a pointed reed into this mixture, he found he could write 
very well. 

He also learned that he could split a kind of river reed, 58. inven- 
called Japyru^ into thin strips, and that he could write on in^materiais: 
them much better than on bits of pottery, bone, and wood. P^P^"^ 
Desiring a larger sheet, he hit upon the idea of pasting his 



44 Ancient Times 

papyrus strips together with overlapping edges. This gave him 
a very thin sheet, but by pasting two such sheets together, back 
to back with the grain crossing at right angles, he produced a 
smooth, tough, pale-yellow paper (Fig. 58). The Egyptian had 
thus mad€ the discovery that a thin vegetable membrane offers 
the most practical surface on which to write, and the world has 



Fig. 31. An Example of Egyptian Hieroglyphic (Upper 
Line) and its Equivalent in the Rapid Running Hand 
(Lower Line) written with Pen and Ink on Papyrus and 
called Hieratic, the Writing of All Ordinary Business 

The daily business of an Egyptian community of course required much 
writing and thousands of records. Such writing, after it began to be 
done with pen and ink on papyrus (Fig. 40), soon became very rapid. 
In course of time therefore there arose a rapid or running hand in which 
each hieroglyphic sign was much abbreviated. This running hand is 
called hieratic. It corresponds to our handwriting, while hieroglyphic 
corresponds to our print. In the above example the signs in the lower 
row show clearly that they are the result of an effort to make quickly 
the signs in the hieroglyphic row above (compare sign for sign). We 
must notice also that the Egyptian wrote from right to left, for this line 
begins at the right and reads to the left. Vertical lines, that is, down- 
ward reading, was also employed (Fig. 58). A third still more rapid and 
abbreviated hand, corresponding in some ways to our shorthand, arose 
still later (eighth century B.C.). It was called demotic, and one of the 
versions on the Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207) is written in demotic 

since discovered nothing better. In this way arose pen, ink, 
and paper (see Fig. 40). All three of these devices have 
descended to us from the Egyptians, and paper still bears its 
ancient naine, ''papyros,"^ but slightly changed. 

1 The change from " papyros " to " paper " is really a very slight one. For 
«s is merely the Greek grammatical ending, which must be omitted in English. 
This leaves us papyr as the ancestor of our word " paper," from which it differs 
by only one letter. On the other Greek word for " papyrus," from which came 
our word " Bible," see § 405. On the rapid or running handwriting which resulted 
from using a pen on paper, see Fig. 31. 



TJie Story of Egypt 45 

The invention of writing and of a convenient system of 59. Un- 
records on paper has had a greater influence in uplifting the SnanceTf 
human race than any other intellectual achievement in the introduction 

of writing 

career of man. It was more important than all the battles 
ever fought and all the constitutions ever devised. . 

The Egyptians early found it necessary to measure time. 60. Begin- 
Like all other early peoples, they used the time from new calSidar^ 
moon to new moon as a very convenient rough measure. If a 
man had agreed to pay back some borrowed grain at the end 
of nine moons, and eight of them had passed, he knew that he 
had one more moon in which to make the payment. But the 
moon-month varies in length from twenty-nine to thirty days, 
and it does not evenly divide the year. The Egyptian soon 
showed himself much more practical in removing this incon- 
venience than his neighbors in other lands. 

He decided to use the moon no longer for dividing his year. 61. Egyptian 
He would have twelve months, and he would make his months IJli^r calendar 
all of the same length, that is, thirty days each ; then he would g^JIggj*"^"' 
celebrate five feast days, a kind of holiday week five days long, fixed date 
at the end of the year. This gave him a year of three hundred 
and sixty-five days. He was not yet enough of an astronomer 
to know that every four years he ought to have a leap year of 
three hundred and sixty-six days, although he discovered this 
fact later (§ 741). This convenient Egyptian calendar was 
jdeyi^ed in 4241 B.C., and its introduction is ih^ earliest dated 
event in history. Furthermore, this calendar is the very one 
which has descended to us, after more than six thousand years 
— unfortunately with awkward alterations in the lengths of the 
months, but for these alterations the Egyptians were not 
responsible (see § 968). 

At the same time, as documents dated by this convenient 62. Lack of 
calendar accumulated through many years, it was found that identifying 
a document like a lease or a note, signed in a certain month, f^vg^tfo^oY' 
was not sufficiently dated, unless the year was also included, year-names 
The system of numbering years from some great event, like 



46 



Ancient Times 



63. Lists of 

year-names, 
the earliest 
chronicles ; 
and lists of 
kings with 
numbered 
years 



1 2\ 3 



our method of numbering them from the birth of Christ, was 
still unknown. In order to have some means of identifying a 
year when it was long past, each year was given a name after 
some prominent event which had happened in it. This method 
is still in use among our own North American Indians (Fig. 32), 

and even among our- 
selves, as people in 
Chicago say " the year 
of the great fire." We 
find the earliest written 
monuments of Egypt 
dated by means of 
named years (Fig. -^Z)- 
Lists of year-names 
then began to be kept. 
As each year-name usu- 
ally mentioned some 
great event (cf. Fig. 
2)^, such lists of year- 
names were thus lists 
of great events, like 
historic chronicles. The 
earliest such year-list 
in human histor)^ now 
surviving, called the Pa- 
lermo Stone (because 
it is preserved in the 
museum at Palermo, 



Fig. 32. Part of a Dakota Chief's 
List of Seventy-one Named Years 

Lone Dog, a Dakota chief, had a buffalo 
robe with seventy-one named years re- 
corded on it, beginning in 1800, when he 
was a child of four. A year when whoop- 
ing cough was very bad was called the 
"Whooping-cough Year"; its sign shows 
a human head violently coughing ! (/) 
Another year, very plentiful in meteors, 
was called the Meteor Year, and its 
sign was a rude drawing of a falling 
meteor {2). A third year saw "the arrange- 
ment of peace between the Dakotas and 
the Crows ; its sign was therefore two 
Indians, with differing style of hair, indi- 
cating the two different tribes, exchanging 
pipes of peace (j). Thus, instead of say- 
ing, as we do, that a thing happened in 
the year 1813, the Indian said it happened 
in the Whooping-cough Year, and by 
examining his table of years he could tell 
how far back that year was 

Sicily), begins about 

3400 B.C., and contained when complete the names of some 
seven hundred years, ending about 2700 B.C. Later the Egyp- 
tians found it more convenient to number the years of each 
king's reign, and then to date events in the first year of King- 
So-and-so or the tenth year of King So-and-so. They finally 
had lists of past kings, covering many centuries. 



The Story of Egypt 



47 



Meantime the Egyptians were making great progress in other 64. Diseov- 
matters. It was probably in the peninsula of Sinai (see map, ^^^ ° "^^ ^ 



p. 36) that some Egyptian, wan- 
dering thither, once happened to 
bank his camp fire with pieces of 
copper ore lying on the ground 
about the camp. The charcoal 
of his wood fire mingled with the 
hot fragments of ore piled around 
to shield the fire, and thus the 
ore was " reduced," as the miner 
say3 ; that is, the copper in me- 
tallic form was released from 
the lumps of ore. Next morn- 
ing, as the Egyptian stirred the 
embers, he discovered a few 
glittering globules, now hardened 
into beads of metal. He drew 
them forth and turned them 
admiringly as they glittered in 
the morning sunshine. Before 
long, as the experience was re- 
peated, he discovered whence 
these strange shining beads had 
come. He produced more of 
them, at first only to be worn as 
ornaments by the women. Then 
he learned to cast the metal into 
a blade, to replace the flint knife 
which he carried in Kis girdle. 
Without knowing it this man 



(at least 
4000 B.C.) 




Fig. 33. Early Egyptian 

Date by the Name of the 

Year 

This large alabaster jar, now in 
the Philadelphia Museum, was 
presented by a primitive king of 
Egypt to a Sun-temple and bears 
the date of the presentation in 
the words, " Year of Fighting 
and Smiting the Northland," 
which is the name of the year, 
given to it because of the victory 
over the Northland (the Delta) 
gained in that year. A long 
series of such year-names fur- 
nishes us a valuable record of 
great events, by which the years 
were named (§ 63) 



stood at the dawning of a new- 
era, the Age of Metal; and the little bead of shining copper 
which he drew from the ashes, if this Egyptian wanderer could 
have seen it, might have reflected to him a vision of steel 



65. The 

dawning of 
the Age of 
Metal 



48 Ancient Times 

buildings, Brooklyn bridges, huge factories roaring with the noise 
of thousands of machines of metal, and vast stretches of steel 
roads along which thunder hosts of rushing locomotives. For 
these things of our modern world, and all they signify, would 
never have come to pass but for the little bead of metal which 
the wondering Egyptian held in his hand for the first time on 
Jhat eventful day so long ago. Since the discovery of fire over 
fifty thousand years earlier (§ 8), man had made no conquest 
of the things of the earth which could compare in importance 
with this discovery of metal. 

66. The Niie^ At this point we realize that we have followed early man out 
calTOiume*'^^' of the Stonc Age (where we left him in Europe) into a civili- 
zation possessed of metal, writing, and government. We also 
begin to see that dry and rainless Egypt furnishes the conditions 
for the preservation of such plentiful remains of early man as 
to make this valley an enormous storehouse of his ancient works 
and records. These remains are the only link connecting pre- 
historic man with the historic age of written documents, which 
we are now to study as we make the voyage up the Nile. We 
shall read the monuments along the great river like a vast his- 
torical volume, whose pages will tell us, age after age, the fasci- 
nating story of ancient man and all that he achieved here so 
many thousands of years ago, after his discovery of metals 
and his invention of writing. 

67. The first Such are the thoughts which occupy the mind of the well- 
fhe"pyramids informed traveler as his train carries him southward across the 

Delta. Perhaps he is pondering on the possible results which 
the Egyptians were to achieve as he sees them in imagination 
throwing away their flint chisels and replacing them with those 
of copper. The train rounds a bend, and through an opening in 
the palms he is fairly blinded by a burst of blazing sunshine 
from the western desert, in the midst of which he discovers a 
group of noble pyramids rising above the glare of the sands. 
It is his first glimpse of the great pyramids of Gizeh (Fig. 24), 
and it tells him better than any printed page what the Egyptian 



The Story of Egypt 49 

builders with the copper chisel in their hands could do. A few- 
minutes later his train is moving among the modern buildings 
of Cairo, and the very next day will surely find him taking the 
seven-mile drive from Cairo out to Gizeh. 



Section 6. The Pyramid Age (about 3000 to 
2500 B.C.) 

No traveler ever forgets the first drive from Cairo to the 68. The pyra 
pyramids of Gizeh, as he sees their giant forms rising higher tombs 
and higher above the crest of the western desert (Fig. 24). 
A thousand questions arise in the visitor's mind. He has read 
that these vast buildings he is approaching are tombs, in which 




Fig. 34. Winged Sun-Disk, a Symbol of the Sun-god 

In this form the Sun-god was beheved to be a falcon flying across the 

sky. We shall later see how the other nations of the Orient in Asia 

also adopted this Egyptian symbol (see Figs. 102, 117, and 129) 

the kings of Egypt were buried. Such mighty buildings reveal 
many things about the men who built them. In the first place, 
these tombs show that the Egyptians believed in a life after 
death, and that to obtain such life it was necessary to preserve 
the body from destruction. They built these tombs to shelter 
and protect the body after death. From this belief came also the 
practice of embalmment, by which the body was preserved as 
a mummy (Fig. 72). It was then placed in the great tomb, in 
a small room deep under the pyramid masonry. Other tombs 
of masonry, much smaller in size, cluster about the pyramids in 
great numbers (Figs. 39 and 42). Here were buried the relatives 
of the king, and the great men of his court, who assisted him 
in the government of the land. 



so 



A7icie7it Times 



69. The gods 
of Egypt : Re 
and Osiris 



70. The prog- 
ress of the 
Egyptians be- 
fore they 
built stone 
masonry 




The Egyptians had many gods, but there were two whom 
they worshiped above all others. The sun, which shines so 
gloriously in the cloudless Egyptian sky, was their greatest god, 
and their most splendid temples were erected for his worship. 
Indeed, the pyramid is a symbol sacred to the Sun-god. (See 
another symbol in Fig. 34.) They called him .R£_j(pronounced 
ray). The other great power which they revered was the shinirig;^^ 
Nile. The great river and the fertile soil he refreshes, and the 
green life which he brings forth — all these the Egyptian thought 
of together as a single god, Osiris, the imperishable life of the 

earth, which revives and fades 
every year with the changes 
of the seasons (see Fig. 35). 
It was a beautiful thought to 
the Egyptian that this same 
life-giving power which fur- 
nished him his food in this 
world would care for him also 
in the next^ when his body 
lay out yonder in the great 
cemetery of Gizeh, which we 
are approaching.^ 
But this vast cemetery of Gizeh tells us of many other things 
besides the religion of the Egyptians. As we look up at the 
colossal pyramids behind the Sphinx (Fig. 54) we can hardly 
grasp the fact of the enormous forward stride taken by the 
Egyptians since the days when they used to be buried with 
their flint knives in a pit scooped out on the margin of the 
desert (Fig. 25). It was the use of metal which since then had 
carried them so far. That Egyptian in Sinai who noticed the 
first bit of metal (§ 65) lived over a thousand years before 

1 There were many other Egyptian gods whose earthly symbols were animals, 
but the animal worship usually attributed to Egypt was a degeneration belonging 
to the latest age. The animals were not gods in this early time, but only symbols 
of the divine beings, just as the winged sun-disk was a symbol of the Sun-god 
(Fig- 34)- 



Fig. 35. The Dead Osiris 
embalmed 

From the body of the god stalks 
of grain have sprouted, a symbol 
suggesting the imperishable life of 
the god, by means of which he 
survived death (§ 69) 



The Story of Egypt 



51 



these pyramids were built. He was buried in a pit like that 
of the earliest Egyptian peasant (Figs. 25 and 38, i). 

It was a long time before the possession of metal resulted in 
copper tools which made possible great architecture in stone. 
Not more than a hundred and fifty years before the Great 




' ^^-r^^^fei- 



Fig. 36. The Oldest Surviving Building of Stone 
Masonry (not long after 3000 b.c.) 

This terraced building, often called the step-pyramid, was the tomb of 
King Zoser (early thirtieth century B.C.). It is about 200 feet high, 
and is composed of a series of buildings like those in Fig. 42, placed 
one on top of the other. It thus formed a tapering building (Fig. 38,5), 
out of which developed the pyramid form at the close of the thirtieth 
century (on the architect see Fig. 37 and § 71) 



Pyramid of Gizeh, the Egyptians were still building the tombs 
of their kings out of sun-baked brick. Such a royal tomb was 
at first merely a chamber in the ground, roofed with wood 
^d covered with a mound of sand and gravel (Fig. 38, 2). 

Then some skillful workman among them found out that he 
could use his copper tools to cut square blocks of limestone 
and line the chamber with these blocks in place of the soft 



52 



Ancient Times 



71. The 

earliest stone 
building, and 
Imhotep, the 
first architect 
in stone 



72. From the 
earliest stone 
masonry to 
the Great 
Pyramid — a 
century and a 
half 



bricks. So far as we know, this was the first piece of stone 
masonry ever put together (Fig. 38, j). It can hardly be called 
a building, for, like a cellar wall, it was all below ground. 

The next step, a real building above- 
ground, was still of brick (Fig. 38, <^). 
It was soon followed by a terraced 
structure of stone for the king's 
.tomb, the earliest surviving building 
of stone masonry ever erected. We 
know the name of the royal archi- 
tect, Imhotep, the earliest architect to 
put up a building of stone masonry. 
He flourished just after 3000 B.C., 
and his name deserves far greater 
fame and respect than those of the 
early kings or conquerors them- 
selves (Fig. 37). 

The erection of Imhotep's ter- 
raced building was but a step toward 
the construction of a pyramid. A 
generation later, so rapid was the 
progress, the king's architects were 
building the Great Pyramid of Gizeh 
(2900 B.C.). From the earliest piece 
of stone masonry (Fig. 38, j) to the 
construction of the Great Pyramid 
(Fig. 38, 7), less than a century and 
a half elapsed. Most of this advance 
was made during the thirtieth cen- 
tury B.C., that is, between 3000 and 




Fig. 37. Imhotep the 
Wise, the Earliest Ar- 
chitect of Sto\e Build- 
ings (nearly 3000 B.C.) 

This architect of the earli- 
est surviving building of 
stone (Fig. 36) was grand 
vizier at the court of King 
Zoser. He was also a great 
physician and wise man, and 
later on he was thought to be 
a god, until he was finally re- 
garded as Asclepius {^scu- 
lapius), the god of medicine 
among the Greeks and 
Romans. This little portrait 
of him is a bronze statuette, 
now in the Berlin Museum, 
and shows him reading from 
a papyrus roll 



i 2900 B.C. (Fig- 38). Such rapid prog- 



ress in control of mechanical powef 
can be found in no other period of 
the world's history until the nine- 
teenth century. 



The Story of Egypt 5 3 

It helps us to realize this progress when we know that the 73. The vast 
Great Pyramid covers thirteen acres. It is a solid mass of great Pyra- 
masonry containing 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weigh- "^^^ 
ing on an average two and a half tons ; that is, each block is as 
heavy as a large wagonload of coal. The sides of the pyramid 
at the base are 755 feet long,^ that is, about a block and three 
quarters (counting twelve city blocks to a mile), and the build- 
ing was nearly 500 feet high. An ancient story tells us that a 
hundred thousand men were working on this royal tomb for 
twenty years, and we can well believe it (Fig. 39). 

We perceive at once that it must have required a very 74. Govem- 
skillful ruler and a great body of officials to manage and to pyj^mid Age 
feed a hundred thousand workmen around this great building. 
The king who controlled such vast undertakings was no longer 
a local chieftain (§ 50), but he now ruled a united Egypt, the 
earliest great unified nation, comprising several millions of 
people. The king was so reverenced that the people did not 
mention him by name, but instead they spoke of the palace 
in which he lived, that is, the '' Great^House," or, in Egyptian, 
'' Pharaoh." He had \{\'s> local officials collecting taxes all over 
Egypt (Fig. 40). It was also their business to try the law cases 
which arose, and every judge had before him the writteji law,^ 
which bade him judge justly. 

The king's huge ce?itral offices, occupying low, sun-baked- 
brick buildings, sheltered an army of clerks with their reed 
pens and their rolls of papyrus (Fig. 40), keeping the king's 
records and accounts. The taxes received from the people 
here were not in money, for coined money did not yet exist. 
Payments were made in produce — grain, live stock, wine, honey, 
linen, and the like. With the exception of the cattle, these had 
to be stored in granaries and storehouses, a vast group of 
which formed the treasury of the king. 

1 It should be remembered that the pyramid is solid. Compare the length of 
the Colosseum (about 600 feet), which is built around a hollcnv inclosure. 

2 This Egyptian codcvof laws has unfortunately been lost. 




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Fig. 39. Restoration of the Great Pyramids and Other 

Tomb-Monuments in the Ancient Cemetery of Gizeh, 

Egypt. (After Hoelscher) 

These royal tombs (pyramids) belonged to the leading kings of the 
Fourth Dynasty, the early part (2900-2750 B.C.) of the Pyramid Age' 
(about 3006 to 2500 B.C.). The Great Pyramid, the tomb of King Khufu 
(Greek, Cheops), is on the right (see § 73). Next in size is that of King 
Khafre (Greek, Chcphre7i) (Fig. 54), on the left. On the east side (front) 
of each pyramid is a temple (see also Fig. 56), where the food, drink, 
and clothing were placed for the use of the dead king. These temples, 
like the pyramids, were built on the desert plateau above, while the 
royal town was in the valley below (on the right) (see § 75 and Fig. 24). 
For convenience, therefore, the temple was connected with the town 
below by a covered gallery, or corridor, of stone, seen here descending 
in a straight line from the temple of King Khafre and terminating below, 
just beside the Sphinx, in a large oblong building of stone, called a 
valley-temple. Tt was a splendid structure of granite (Fig. 55), serving 
not only as a temple but also as the entrance to the great corridor from 
the royal city. The pyramids are surrounded by the tombs of the queens 
and the great lords of the age (see Fig. 42). At the lower left-hand 
corner is an unfinished pyramid, showing the inclined ascents up which 
the stone blocks were dragged. These ascents (called ramps) were 
built of sun-baked brick and were removed after the pyramid was 
finished. (This scene will be found in color in Outlines of European 
History, Part I, Plate I) 



The Story of Egypt 



57 




The villas and gardens of the officials who assisted the king 75. The 
in all this business of government formed a large' part of the ™^^ 
royal city (Fig. 51). The chief quarter of the city, however, was 
occupied by the palace of the king and the luxurious parks and 
gardens which surrounded it. Thus the palace and its grounds, 
the official villas, and offices of the government made up the 
capital of Egypt, the royal city which extended along the foot of 
the pyramid ceme- 
tery and stretched 
far away over the 
low plain, of which 
there is a fine view 
from the summit 
of the pyramid. 
But the city was 
all built of sun- 
baked brick and 
wood, and it has 
therefore vanished. 
It extended far 
southward from 
Gizeh and was later 
xalied Memphis. 

The city of the 
dead, — .the pyra- 
mids and the tombs 
clustering around 

them (Figs. 39 and 42), — being built of stone, has fortunately 
proved more durable. Hence it is. that from the summit of 
the Great Pyramid there is a grand view southward, down 
a straggling but imposing line of pyramids rising dimly as far 
as one can see on the southern horizon. Each pyramid was 
a royal tomb, and for us each such tomb means that a king 
lived, ruled, and died. The line is over sixty miles^long, and 
its oldest pyramids represent the first great age of Egyptian 



Fig. 40. Collection of Taxes by Local 
Treasury Officials in the Pyramid Age 

The clerks and scribes are in two rows at the 
right. All squat, and write on the raised right 
knee, except the two who have desks. The left 
hand holds a sheet of papyrus ; the right, the 
pen. The taxpayers are delinquent village offi- 
cers brought in (at the left) by deputies with 
staves under their arms. The inscription above 
reads, " Seizing the town rulers for a reckon- 
ing." The clerks had records of the taxpayers' 
names and how much they owed ; and they 
issued receipts when the taxes were paid, just 
as at the present day. Such arrangements did 
not arise in Europe until far down in the Roman 
Empire (§§ 1026-1027) 



76. Length 
and date of 
the Pyramid 
Age 



58 



A}icie7it Times 



77. Northern 
commerce 
and earliest 
seagoing 
ships 



civilization after the land was united under one king.^ We may 
call it thej^ramid Age, and it lasted about five hundred years, 
from 3000 to 2500 B.C. 

In the Pyramid Kg& the Pharaoh was already powerful 
enough to begin seeking wealth beyond the boundaries of 
Egypt. We even possess painted reliefs (Fig. 41) showing 




Fig. 41. Earliest Representation of a Seagoing Ship 
(Twenty-eighth Century b.c.) 

The scene is carved on the wall of a temple (Fig. 56). The people are 
all bowing to the king whose figure (now lost) stood on shore (at the 
left), and they salute him with the words written in a line of hieroglyphs 
above, meaning : '' Hail to thee ! O Sahure [the king's name], thou god 
of the living ! We behold thy beauty." Some of these men are bearded 
Phoenician prisoners brought by this Egyptian ship which with seven 
others, making a fleet of eight vessels, had therefore crossed the east 
end of the Mediterranean and returned. The big double mast is un- 
shipped and lies on supports rising by the three steering oars in the 
stern. The model and ornaments of these earliest-known ships spread 
in later times to ships found in all waters from Italy to India 



US the ships which he dared to send beyond the shelter of 
the Nile mouths far across the end of the Mediterranean to 
the coast of Phoenicia (see map, p. 100). This was in the 

1 For a long time before this there had been little kingdoms scattered up and 
down the valley. These finally merged into two leading kingdoms — one includ- 
ing the Delta, and the other the valley south of it. They long fought together 
(see Fig. 33), until they were finally united into one kingdom, under a single 
king. The first king to establish this union permanently was Menes, who united 
Egypt under his rule about 3400 B.C. But it was not until four centuries or more 
after Menes that the united kingdom became powerful and wealthy enough to 
build these royal pyramid-tombs, marking for us the first great age of Egyptian 
civilization. 



The Story of Egypt 59 

middle of the twenty-eighth century B.C., and this relief 
(Fig. 41) contains the oldest known representation of a sea- 
going ship. Yet at that time the Pharaoh had already been 
carrying on such over-sea commerce for centuries. 

Besides maintaining his copper mines in Sinai, the king was 78. Southern 
also already sending caravans of donkeys far up the Nile into and eadkst 
the Sudan to traffic with the blacks of the south, and to bring f,fj^|^^i°5 
back ebony, ivory, ostrich feathers, and fragrant gums. The 



on 
the Red Sea 




t= /4^^::^j0^m, 



Fig. 42. Restoration of a Group of Tombs of the Nobles 
IN the Pyramid Age 

These tombs are grouped about the royal pyramids, as seen in Fig. 39. 
They are sometimes of vast size. The square openings in the top are 
shafts leading down to the burial chambers in the native rock far below 
the tomb structures. These structures are of stone, surrounding a heap 
of sand and gravel inside (Fig. 38, 4). The chapel room is in the east 
side, of which the door can be seen in the front of each tomb. The 
reliefs shown in Figs. 43-48 adorn the inside walls of these chapels 

officials who, conducted these caravans were the earliest ex- 
plorers of inner Africa, and in their tombs at the First Cataract 
they have left interesting records of their exciting adventures 
among the wild tribes of the south — adventures in which some 
of them lost their lives.^ The Pharaoh was also sending his 
ships on expeditions to a land called Punt, at the south end of 
the Red Sea (see map, p. 36), to procure the same products and 
to bring them back by water. 

1 The teacher will find it of interest to read these records to the class. See 
the author's Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. I, pp. 325-336, 350-374. 



6o 



Ajicient Times 



79. The A stroll among the tombs clustering so thickly around the 

ofThe'^Pyra-^ pyramids of Gizeh (Fig. 42) is almost like a walk among the 
f!\^^^se;the busy communities which flourished in this populous valley in 
reveal the days of the pyramid-builders. We find the door of every 

tomb standing open (Fig. 42), and there is nothing to prevent 



\mAKi 
o ^ ^'^ ^ 



J [ 



lAldc^^J 





r 



Fig 43 Relief Scene from ihe Chapel of a Noble's 
Tomb (Fig. 42) in the Pyramid Age 

The tall figure of the noble stands at the right. He is inspecting three 
lines of cattle and a line of fowl brought before him. Note the two 
scribes who head the two middle rows. Each is writing with pen on a 
sheet of papyrus, and one carries two pens behind his ear. Such 
reliefs after being carved were colored in bright hues by the painter 

(see § 93) 



our entrance. We stand in an oblong room with walls of stone 
masonry. This is a chapel chamber, to which the Egyptian 
believed the dead man buried beneath the tomb might return 
every day. Here he would find food and drink left for him 
daily by his relatives. He would also find the stone walls of 



The Story of Egypt 



6i 



this room covered from floor to ceiling with carved scenes, beau- 
tifully painted, picturing the daily life on a great estate (Figs. 40, 
43-48, and 50). The place is now silent and deserted, or if we 
hear the voices of the donkey boys talking outside, they are 
speaking Arabic, for the ancient Egyptian language of the men 
who built these tombs so many thousand years ago is no longer 
spoken. But everywhere, in bright and charming colors, we 
see pictures of the life — the days of toil and pleasure — which 
these men of nearly five thousand years ago actually lived. 




Fig. 44. Flowing and Sowing in the Pyramid Age 

There are two plowmen, one driving the oxen and one holding the 
plow. This wooden plow was derived from such a wooden hoe as we 
see in use in front of the oxen. The handle of the hoe, here grasped 
by the user, was lengthened 30 that oxen might be yoked to it. The 
hoe handle thus became the beam of a plow. Two short handles were 
then attached by which the plowman behind could guide it (§ 33). 
The man with the hoe breaks up the clods left by the plow, and in 
front of him is the sower, scattering the seed from the curious sack he 
carries before him. At the left is a scribe of the estate. The hiero- 
glyphs at the top in all such scenes explain what is going on. Scene 
from the chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig. 42) 

Dominating all these scenes on the walls is the tall form of 80. Agricul- 
the noble (Fig. 43), the lord of the estate, who was buried in caSe raising; 
this tomb. He stands looking out over his fields and inspecting ^^^^^^^^^^ 
the work going on there. These fields (Fig. 44) are the oldest 
scene of agriculture known to us. Here, too, are the herds, long 
lines of sleek, fat cattle grazing in the pasture, while the milch 
cows are led up and tied to be milked (Figs. 43 and 45). These 
cattle are also beasts of burden ; we notice the oxen draw- 
ing the plow. But we find no horses in these tombs of the 



62 



Ancient Times 



8i. The cop- 
persmith 




Fig. 45 



Peasant milking 
Pyramid Age 



THE 



The cow is restive and the ancient cow- 
herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her 
another man is holding her calf, which 
rears and plunges in the effort to reach 
the milk. Scene from the chapel of a 
noble's tomb (Fig. 42) 



Pyramid Age, for the horse was still unknown to the Egyprlan. 
The donkey, however, is everywhere, and it would be impossible 

to harvest the gram 
^ ^^mm\ i^xzf^^f^ without him (Fig. 46). 

On the next wall we 
find again the tall figure 
of the noble overseeing 
the booths and yards 
where the craftsmen of 
his estate are working. 
Yonder is the smith. 
He has never heard of 
his ancestor who picked 
up the first bead of 
copper over a thousand years earlier (§ 65). Much progress 
has been made since that day. This man could make excellent 
copper tools of all sorts; but the tool which demanded the 
greatest skill was the long, 
flat ripsaw, which the smith 
knew how to hammer into 
shape out of a broad strip of 
copper five or six feet long. 
Such a saw may be seen in 
use in Fig. 50. Besides this 
he knew how to make one 
that would saw great blocks 
of stone for the pyramids. 
Moreover, this coppersmith 
was already able to deliver 
orders of considerable size. 
We know that he could fur- 
nish thirteen hundred feet 

(about a quarter of a mile) of copper drain piping for a pyra- 
mid temple (Fig. 56), where recent excavation has found it- 
the earliest plumbing known to us. 




Fig. 46. Donkey carrying a 

Load of Grain Sheaves in 

THE Pyramid Age 

The foal accompanies its mother 
while at work. Scene from the 
chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig. 42) 



The Story of Egypt 



63 




On the same wall we see the lapidary holding up for the 82. The lapt 
noble's admiration splendid stone bowls cut from diorite. sm?h^and 
Although this kind of stone is as hard as steel, the bowl is Jeweler 
ground to such thinness that the sunlight glows through its 
dark gray sides (Fig. 134). Other workmen are cutting and 
grinding tiny pieces of beautiful blue turquoise. These pieces 
they inlay with remarkable accuracy into recesses in the sur- 
face of a magnificent golden vase just made ready by the 
goldsmith (Plate I). 
The booth of the 
goldsmith is filled 
with workmen and 
apprentices (Fig. 
47). They hammer 
and cast, solder and 
fit together richly 
wrought jewelry 
which is hardly sur- 
passed by the work 
of the best gold- 
smiths and jewelers 
of to-day. 

In the next space 
on this wall we find 
the potter no longer 
building up his jars 

and bowls with his fingers alone, as in the Stone Age. He now 
sits before a small horizontal wheel (Fig. 48), upon which he 
deftly shapes the whirling vessel. When the soft clay vessels 
are ready, they are no longer unevenly burned in an open fire, 
as among the Late Stone Age potters in the Swiss lake-villages 
(Fig. 16); but here in the Egyptian potter's yard are long rows 
of dosed furnaces of clay as tall as a man. When the pottery 
is packed in these furnaces it is burned evenly, because it is 
protected from the wind (Fig. 48). On the tomb wall we also 



Fig. 47. Goldsmith's Workshop in the 
Pyramid Age 

Upper row. At left the chief goldsmith weighs 
precious stones and a scribe records them; 
next, six men with blowpipes blow the fire in a 
small clay furnace ; next, a workman pours out 
molten metal or paste ; at the right end four 
men are beating gold leaf. Middle row. Pieces 
of finished jewelry and a jewel-box in the middle. 
Lower row. Workmen seated at low benches ^3-^ The pot- 
are putting together and engraving pieces of and^fumTce ; 
jewelry. Several of these men are dwarfs. (See the earliest 
the finished work on Plate I, and headpiece, p. 3 5) glass 



64 



Ancient Times 



84. The 

weavers and 
tapestry- 
makers 



see the craftsman making glass. This art the Egyptians had 
discovered centuries earlier. The glass was spread on tiles in 
gorgeous glazes for adorning house and palace walls (Plate II), 
and later it was wrought into exquisite many-colored glass 
bottles" and vases, which were widely exported (Fig. 49). 

Yonder the weaving women draw forth from the loom a 
gossamer fabric of linen. The picture would naturally give us 
no idea of its fineness, but fortunately pieces of it have sur- 
vived, wrapped around the mummy of a king of this age. 




Fig. 48. Potter's Wheel and Furnaces 

The potter crouches before his horizontal wheel, which is like a flat 
round plate, on which rests the jar being shaped. The potter keeps 
the wheel whirling with one hand, and with the other he shapes the soft 
clay jar as it whirls on the wheel. This wheel is the ancestor of our 
lathe. Two men (at the right end) are just filling a tall furnace with 
bowls and jars, and another furnace (at the left) is already very hot, 
for the man stirring the fire is holding up his hand to shield his face 
from the heat 



Paper- 



makers 



These specimens of royal linen are so fine that it requires a 
magnifying glass to distinguish them from silk, and the best 
work of the modern machine loom is coarse in comparison 
with this fabric of the ancient Egyptian ha?id: loom. At one 
loom a lovely tapestry is being made, for these weavers of 
Egypt furnished the earliest-known specimens of such work, 
to be hung on the walls of the Pharaoh's palace or stretched 
out to shade the roof garden of the noble's villa (Fig. 51). 

In the next space on the wall we find huge bundles of 
papyrus reeds, which barelegged men are gathering along the 



TJie Story of E^ypt 



65 




edge of the Nile marsh. These reeds furnish piles of pale 
yellow paper in long narrow sheets (§ 58). The ships which we 
have followed on the Mediterranean (Fig. 41) will in course 
of time add bales of this Nile paper to their cargoes, and 
carry it to the 
European world. 

We seem almost 
to hear the hubbub 
of hammers and 
mauls as we ap- 
proach the next sec- 
tion of wall, where 
we find the ship- 
builders and cabi- 
netmakers. Here 
is a long line of 
curving hulls, with 
workmen swarming 
over them like ants, 
fitting together the 
earliest seagoing 
ships (Fig. 41). 
Beside them are 
the busy cabinet- 
makers (Fig. 50), 
fashioning luxuri- 
ous furniture for the noble's villa. The finished chairs and 
couches for the king or the rich are overlaid with gold and 
silver, inlaid with ebony and ivory, and upholstered with soft 
leathern cushions (Fig. 73). 

As we look back over these painted chapel walls we see 
that the tombs of Gizeh have told us a very vivid story of how 
these early men learned to make for themselves the things they 
needed. We should notice how many more such things these 
men of the Nile could now make than the Stone Age men, who 



Fig. 49. Egyptian Glass Bottles and 

THEIR Distribution from Babylonia to 

Ancient Italy 

A, as found in ancient Egypt ; B, as found in 
ancient Babylonia ; C, as found in ancient Italy. 
The shape is in imitation of Egyptian perfume 
bottles cut out of alabaster. This shape became 
the common form for perfume and toilet bottles 
among the Mediterranean peoples in later times 
(see Fig. 170) 



87. Indus- 
trial progress 
of Egypt re- 
vealed by the 
tomb-chapels 



66 



Ancient Times 



88. River 

commerce ; 
the market 
place ; traffic 
in goods ; cir- 
culation of 
precious 
metal 



were still living in the lake-villages and other towns of Europe 
(Fig. 14) at the very time these tdmb-chapels were built. 

It is easy to picture the bright, sunny river in those ancient 
days, alive with boats and barges (often depicted on these 
walls) moving hither and thither, bearing the products of all 
these industries, to be carried to the treasury of the Pharaoh 
as taxes or to the market of the town to be bartered for other 
goods. Here on the wall is the market place itself. We can 
watch the cobbler offering the baker a pair of sandals as 




Fig. 50. Cabinetmakers in the Pyramid Age 

At the left a man is cutting with a chisel which he taps with a mallet ; 
next, a man " rips " a board with a copper saw ; next, two men are 
finishing off a couch, and at the right a man is drilling a hole with a 
bow-drill. Scene from the chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig 42). Com- 
pare a finished chair belonging to a wealthy noble of the Empire 
which was placed in his tomb and thus preserved (Fig. 73) 

payment for a cake, or the carpenter's wife giving the fisherman 
a little wooden box to pay for a fish ; while the potter's wife 
proffers the apothecary two bowls fresh from the potter's fur- 
nace in exchange for a jar of fragrant ointment. We see, there- 
fore, that the people have 7io coined money to use, and that in 
the market place trade is actual exchange of goods. Such is the 
business of the common people. If we could see the large 
transactions in the palace, we would find there heavy rings 
of gold of a standard weight, which circulated like money. 
Rings of copper also served the same purpose. Such rings 
were the forerunners of coin (§ 458). 



The Story of Egypt 6/ 

These people in the gayly painted picture of the market 89. Three 
place on the chapel wall were the common folk of Egypt in society in the 
the Pyramid Age. Some of them were free men, following Pyramid Age 
their own business or industry. Others were slaves, working 
the fields on the great estates. Neither of these humble 
classes owned any land. Over them were the landowners, 
the Pharaoh and his great lords and officials, like the owner 
of this tomb (Fig. 42). We know many more of them by 
name, and a walk through this cemetery would enable us to 
make a directory of the wealthy quarter of the royal city under 
the kings who were buried in these pyramids of Gizeh. We 
know the grand viziers and the chief treasurers, the chief judges 
and the architects, the chamberlains and marshals of the palace, 
and so on. We can even visit the tomb of the architect who 
built the Great Pyramid of Gizeh for Khufu. 

We can observe with what pleasure these nobles and officials 90. The 
presided over this busy industrial and social life of the Nile pyramid Age 
valley in the Pyramid Age. Here on this chapel wall again ^^ ^^^ ^°"^^ 
we see its owner seated at ease in his palanquin, a luxurious 
wheel-less carriage borne upon the shoulders of slaves, as he 
returns from the inspection of his estate where we have been 
following him. His bearers carry him into the shady garden 
befor-e his house (Fig. 51), where they set down the palanquin 
and cease their song.-^ His wife advances at once to greet him. 
Her place is always at his side ; she is his sole wife, held in 
all honor, and enjoys every right which belongs to her husband. 
This garden is the noble's paradise. Here he may recline for. an 
hour of leisure with his family and friends' playing at draughts, 
listening to the music of harp, pipe, and lute, watching his 
women in the slow and stately dances of the time, while his 
children are sporting about among the arbors, splashing in the 
pool as they chase the fish, playing with ball, doll, and jumping 
jack, or teasing the tame monkey which takes refuge under 
their father's ivory-legged stool. 

1 Recorded, with other songs, on the tomb-chapel walls. 



68 Ancient History 

Section 7. Art and Architecture in the 
Pyramid Age 

gi. The The noble drops one hand idly upon the head of his favorite 

hound, and with the other beckons to the chief gardener and 
gives directions regarding the new pomegranates which he 
wishes to try for dinner. The house (Fig. 51) where this 
dinner awaits him is large and commodious, built of sun-dried 
brick and wood. Light and airy, as suits the climate, we find 
that it has many latticed windows on all sides. The walls of 
the living rooms are scarcely more than a frame to support 
gayly colored hangings (§84) which can be let down as a pro- 
tection against winds and sand storms when necessary. These 
give the house a very bright and cheerful aspect. The house is 
a work of art, and we discern in it how naturally the Egyptian 
demanded beauty in his surroundings. This he secured by 
making all his useful things beautiful. 
92. The art Beauty surrounds us on every hand as we follow him in to 

ture and his dinner. The lotus blossoms on the handle of his carved 

decoration spoou, and his wine sparkles in the deep blue calyx of the 
same flower, which forms the bowl of his wineglass. I'he 
muscular limbs of the lion or the ox, beautifully carved in 
ivory, support the chair in which he sits or the couch where 
he reclines. The painted ceiling over his head is a blue and 
starry heaven resting upon palm-trunk columns (Fig. 56), each 
crowned with its graceful tuft of drooping foliage carved in 
wood and colored in the dark green of the living tree ; or 
columns in the form of lotus stalks rise from the floor as if 
to support the azure ceiling upon their swaying blossoms. 
Doves and butterflies, exquisitely painted, flit across this in- 
door sky. Beneath our feet w^e find the pavement of the 
dining hall carpeted in paintings picturing everywhere the 
deep green of disheveled marsh grasses, with gleaming water 
between and fish gliding among the swaying reeds. Around 
the margin, leaping among the rushes, we see the wild ox 



The Story of Egypt 



69 



^Ss ;«Lrt^W -^U^ 




Fig. 51. Villa of an Egyptian Noble 

The garden is inclosed with a high wall. There are pools on either 

side as one enters, and a long. arbor extends down the middle. The 

house at the rear, embowered in trees, is crowned by a roof garden 

shaded with awnings of tapestry (see § 84) 

tossing his head at the birds twittering on the nodding rush 
tops, as they vainly strive to frighten away the stealthy weasel 
creeping up to plunder their nests. 

The Egyptians could not have left us the beautifully painted 
reliefs in the tomb-chapels we visited unless they had possessed 



70 



Ancient Times 



93. Painting 
and relief 
in tombs and 
temples 



94. Portrait 
sculpture 



95. Architec- 
ture : the 
earliest 
clerestory 



trained artists. Indeed, we can find, in one corner of the wall, 
the picture of the artist who painted the walls in one of the 
chapels, where he has represented himself enjoying a plentiful 
feast among other people of the estate. His drawings all around 
us show that he has not been able to overcome all the difficul- 
ties of depicting, on a flat surface, objects having thickness and 
roundness. Animal figures are drav/n, however, with great 
lifelikeness (Figs. 43-46), but perspective is almost entirely 
unknown to him, and objects in the background or distance 
are drawn of almost the same size as those in front. 

The portrait sculptor was the greatest artist of this age. 
His statue's were carved in stone or wood, and colored in the 
hues of life ; the eyes were inlaid with rock crystal, and they 
still shine with the gleam of life (Fig. 53). More lifelike por- 
traits have never been produced by any age, although they are 
the earliest portraits in the history of art. Such statues of the 
kings are often superb (Fig. 52). They were set up in the 
Pharaoh's pyramid temple (Figs. 55 and 56). In size the most 
remarkable statue of the Pyramid Age is the Great Sphinx, 
which stands here in this cemetery of Gizeh (Fig. 54). The 
head is a portrait of Khafre, the king who built the second 
pyramid of Gizeh (Fig. 54), and was carved from a promon- 
tory of rock which overlooked the royal city. It is the largest 
portrait ever wrought. 

The massive granite piers and walls (Fig. 55) of Khafre's 
valley temple (Fig. 39) beside the Sphinx reveal to us the 
impressive architecture in stone which the men of the early 
part of the Pyramid Age were designing. This splendid hall 
(Fig. 55) was lighted by a series of oblique slits, which are 
really low roof windows. They occupied the difference in level 
between a higher roof over the middle aisle of the hall and 
a lower roof on each side of the middle (Fig. 271, i). Such 
an arrangement of roof windows, called a clerestory {clear- 
story)^ later passed over to Greece and Rome, and finally sug- 
gested the nave of the Christian basilica church or cathedral 




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The Story of Egypt 



71 



(Fig. 271). And so this granite hall of Khafre in the Pyra- 
mid Age was the ancestor of the leading form of Christian 
architecture as it 
developed in Eu- 
rope three thousand 
five hundred years 
later. 

But before a 
century had passed, 
such massive gran- 
deur as we find in 
this great hall of 
Khafre (Fig. 55) 
was being trans- 
formed by the 
Egyptian's grow- 
ing sense of grace 
and beauty. In- 
stead of ponder- 
ous square piers or 
pillars the archi- 
tects now began 
to erect light and 
graceful round col- 
umns with beauti- 
ful capitals ; these 
were ranged in 
long rows, the 
earliest colonnades 
(Fig. 56), dating 
from the twenty- 
eighth century b. c. 
They were pecul- 
iar to Ei 
when 




96. Earliest 
colonnades 



fcYPt, for 
our study 



Fig. sS- Restoration of the Clere- 
story Hall in the Valley-Temple of 
Khafre (cf. Fig. 39). (After Hoelscher) 

The roof of this hall was supported on two rows 
of huge stone piers (see Fig. 271, /), each a 
single block of polished granite weighing 22 
tons. This view shows only one row of the 
piers, the other being ©ut of range at the right. 
At the left above, the light streams in obliquely 
from the very low clerestory windows (§ 95). 
Compare the cross section (Fig. 271, /). The 
statues shown here had been thrown by un- 
known enemies into a well in a connected hall, 
where they were found sixty years ago (see 
head of the finest in Fig. 52) 



72 



Ancient Times 




•^^aifi^X 






'' IK '"fiFT 




Fig. 56. Colonnades in the Court of a Pyramid-TempijE 
(Twenty-eighth Century e.g.). (After Borchardt) 

Notice the pyramid rising behind the temple (just as in Fig. 39 also). 
The door in the middle leads to the holy place built against the 
side of the pyramid, where a false door in the pyramid masonry 
served as the portal through which the king came forth from the world 
of the dead into this beautiful temple to enjoy the food and drink 
placed here for him in magnificent vessels (Plate I) and to share in the 
splendid feasts celebrated here. The center of the court is open to the 
sky ; the roof of the porch all around is supported on round columns, 
the earliest known in the history of architecture. Contrast the square 
piers without any capital which the architects of Khafre put into his 
temple-hall (Fig. 55) over a century earlier than these columns. Each 
column reproduces a palm tree, the capital being the crown of foliage. 
The whole place was colored in the bright hues of nature, including 
the painting on the walls behind the columns. Among these paintings 
was the ship in Fig. 41. Thirteen hundred feet of copper piping, the 
earliest-known plumbing, was installed in this building (§ 81) 



97. Decline 
of the Pyra- 
mid Age 



carries us to eariiest Asia, we shall find that the colonnade 
was long unknown there (§ 195). 

The Pyramid cemeteries have shown us the grandeur of the 
civilization gained by the Egyptians of the Pyramid Age. If 
time permitted, we might find other records here, showing how 



The Story of Egypt 73 

the nobles of the age (just such nobles as the one whose 
estate and home we have in imagination visited) gained more 
and more power until the Pharaohs could no longer control 
them. Then in struggles among themselves they destroyed the 
Pharaoh's government, and the last king of the Pyramid Age 
fell soon after 2500 b. c. It had lasted some five hundred 
years. Thus ended the first great civilized age of human his- 
tory — the age which carried men for the first time out of 
barbarism into civilization (see Fig. 38). But the Pyramid Age 
/vas not the end of civilization on the Nile ; other great periods 
were to follow. The monuments which these later ages left 
lie farther up the river, and we must make the voyage up the 
Nile in order to visit them and to recover the wonderful story 
which they still tell us. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 5. Tell something of the life of the earliest Nile men and 
how we know about them. Trace the steps by which phonetic writing 
arose. Where did the first alphabet arise.? Write three words in 
hieroglyphic (Fig. 30). Discuss the importance of the invention of 
writing. Describe early methods of measuring time. Describe the 
probable manner of the discovery of metal. Which metal was it ? 

Section 6. What do the tombs of Egypt tell us of religion ? 
Describe the effect of the use of metal on architecture. Discuss the 
first architect in stone. Describe the government of the Pyramid 
Age. Study Fig. 38 and tell how the Egyptian tombs reveal the 
transition from barbarism to civilization. Describe the earliest sea- 
going ships. Make a list of the industries revealed in the tomb-chapel 
pictures. Discuss trade and commerce. 

Section 7. Describe the house and garden of a noble in the 
Pyramid Age. Discuss painting and portrait sculpture. Make a 
sketch of the earliest piers or supports (Fig. ^%). Were they 
beautiful.? Draw a later pier (column) a hundred years after the 
Great Pyramid (Fig. 56). Was it beautiful? Describe the roof 
windows called clerestory windows (Figs. 55 and 271, /) and what 
they finally came to be. Give the date of the Pyramid Age, and 
tell why it was important. 




CHAPTER III 

THE STORY OF EGYPT: THE FEUDAL AGE AND 
THE EMPIRE 

Section 8. The Nile Voyage and the Feudal Age 



98. The 

Nile voyage 
begins 



As we begin our voyage up the Nile and our steamer moves 
away from the Cairo dock, we see, stretching far along the 
western horizon, the long line of pyramids, reminding us again 
of the splendor and progress of the Pyramid Age which we 
are now leaving behind. At length they drop down and dis- 
appear behind the fringe of palm groves. Other great monu- 
ments are before us. Along the palm-fringed shores far away 
to the south we shall find the buildings, tombs, and monuments 

Note. At the left we see entering, in white robes, the deceased, a man 
named Ani, and his wife. Before them are the balances of judgment for weighing 
the human heart, to determine whether it is just or not. A Jackal-headed god 
adjusts the scales, while an Ibis-headed god stands behind him, pen in hand, 
ready to record the verdict of the balances. Behind him is a monster ready to 
devour the unjust soul, as his heart (symbolized by a tiny jar), in the left-hand 
scalepan, is weighed over against right and truth (symbolized by a feather) in the 
right-hand scalepan. The scene is painted in water colors on papyrus. Such a 
roll is sometimes as much as go feet long and filled from beginning to end with 
magical charms for the use of the dead in the next world. Hence the modem 
name for the whole roll, the " Book of the Dead." 

74 



The Story of Egypt 



75 




Fig. SI' Cliff-Tomb of an Egyptian Noble of the 
Feudal Age 

This tomb is not a masonry structure like the tomb of the Pyramid 
Age (Fig. 42), but it is cut into the face of the cliff. The chapel 
entered through this door contains painted reliefs like those of the 
Pyramid Age (Figs. 43-47) and also many written records. In this 
chapel the noble tells of his kind treatment of his people ; he says : 
" There was no citizen's daughter whom I misused ; there was no 
widow whom I oppressed ; there was no peasant whom I evicted ; there 
was no shepherd whom I expelled ; . . . there was none wretched 
in my community, there was none hungry in my time. When years 
of famine came I plowed all the fields of the Oryx barony [his estate] 
. . . preserving its people alive and furnishing its food so that there 
was none hungry therein. I gave to the widow as to her who had a 
husband ; I did not exalt the great above the humble in anything that 
I gave" (§ 100). All this we can read inscribed in this tomb 

which will tell us of two more great ages on the Nile — the 
Feudal Age and the Empire. We steam steadily southward, 
and soon the river begins to wind from side to side of the 
deep valley, carrying the steamer at times close under the 
scarred and weatherworn cliffs (Fig. 69). As we scan the rocks 



76 



Aiicient Times 



99. The 

tombs of the 
Feudal Age 



100. Books 
on kindness 
and justice 



we look up to many a tomb-door cut in the face of the cliff, 
and leading to a tomb-chapel excavated in the rock (Fig. 57). 

These cliff-tombs looking down upon the river belonged to 
the Feudal Age of Egyptian history. The men buried in these 
cliff-tombs looked back across five centuries to their ancestors 
of the Pyramid Age, as we look back upon our European 
ancestors before the discovery of America. But the nobles 
who made these cliff-tombs succeeded in gaining greater power 
•than their ancestors. They were granted lands by the king, 
under arrangements which in later Europe we c all fe udal. 
They were thus powerful barons, living like little kings on their 
broad estates, made up of the fertile fields upon which these 
tomb-doors now look down. This Feudal Age lasted for 
several centuries and was flourishing by 2000 b^c. Fragments 
from the libraries of these feudal barons — the oldest libraries 
in the world — have fortunately been discovered in their tombs. 
These oldest of all surviving books are in the form of rolls of 
papyrus, which once were packed in jars, neatly labeled, and 
ranged in rows on the noble's library shelves. Here are the 
most ancient storybooks in the world : tales of wanderings and 
adventures in Asia; tales of shipwreck at the gate of the un- 
known ocean beyond the Red Sea — the earliest " Sindbad the 
Sailor " (Fig. 58) ; and tales of wonders wrought by ancient 
wise men and magicians. 

Some of these stories set forth the sufferings of the poor 
and the humble, and seek to stir .the rulers to be just and kind 
in their treatment of the weaker classes. Some describe the 
wickedness of men and the hopelessness of the future. Others 
- tell of a righteous ruler who is yet to come, a " good shep- 
herd " they call him, meaning a good king, who shall bring in 
justice and happiness for all. We notice here a contrast with 
the Pyramid Age. With the in-coming of the Pyramid builders 
we saw a tremendous growth in power, in building, and in art ; 
but the Feudal Age reveals progress also in a higher realm, 
that of conduct and character (see description under Fig. 57). 



The Story of Egypt 



77 



Probably a number of rolls were required to contain the loi. Dram; 
drama of Osiris — a great play in which the life, death, burial, " ^^^ '^ 
and resurrection of Osiris (§ 69) were pictured at an annual 
feast in which all the people loved to join. It is our earliest 



3\%'B' 



^2 



















4*1^ i*-^ a»^«« ^I^JL^ 



Fig. 58. A Page from the Story of the Shipwrecked 

Sailor, the Earliest Sindbad, as read by the Boys and 

Girls of Egypt Four Thousand Years Ago (One Third of 

Size of Original) 

This page reads : " Those who were on board perished, and not one of 
them escaped. Then I was cast upon an island by a wave of the great 
sea. I passed three days alone, with (only) my heart as my companion, 
.sleeping in the midst of a shelter of trees, till daylight enveloped me. 
Then I crept out for aught to fill my mouth. I found figs and grapes 
there and all fine vegetables etc. . . ." The tale then tells of his seizure 
by an enormous serpent with a long beard, who proves to be the king 
of this distant island in the Red Sea, at the entrance of the Indian 
Ocean. He keeps the sailor three months, treats him kindly, and re- 
turns him with much treasure to Egypt. In form such a book was a 
single strip of papyrus paper, 5 or 6 to 10 or 12 inches wide, and often 
15 to 30 or 40 feet long. When not in use this strip was kept rolled up, 
and thus the earliest books were rolls, looking, when small, like a di- 
ploma or, when large, like a roll of wall paper 



known drama — a kind of Passion Play ; but the rolls contain- 
ing it have perished. There were also rolls containing songs 
and poems, like the beautiful morning hymn sung by the nobles 
of the Pharaoh's court in greeting to the sovereign with the 



78 



A7icient Times 



102. Books 
of science 



A 



B 



u 

Fig. 59. Ancient Egyp- 
tian Astronomical In- 
strument 



return of each new day. Another 
song in praise of the Pharaoh was 
arranged to be sung responsively by 
two groups at the great court festi- 
vals. It was constructed in parallel 
verses or lines, like the parallel lines 
of the Hebrew Psalms. It is the 
oldest surviving example of this 
form of poetry. 

Very few rolls were needed to 
deal with the science of this time. 
The largest and the most valuable 
of all contained what they had 
Jeamed-abont medicine and the or- 
gans of the human body. This oldest 
medical book, when unrolled, is to- 
day about sixty-six feet long and has 
recipes for all sorts of ailments. 
Some of them, are still good and call 
for remedies which, like castor oil, 
are still in common use ; others rep- 
resent the ailment as due to demons, 
which were long believed to be the 
cause of disease. There are also 
rolls containing the simpler rules of 
arithmetic, based on the decimal sys- 
tem which we still use ; others treat 
the beginnings of geometry and ele- 
mentary algebra. Even observations 



The oldest surviving as- 
tronomical device. It is 
now in the Berlin Museum. 

One part {A) is simply a plumb line with a handle attached at the top. 
It enabled the observer to hold the other part [B] directly over a given 
point on the ground while he sighted through the slot at the top toward 
some star like the North Star. By sighting over a rod between the 
observer and the North Star until the rod was exactly in line with the 
North Star, the astronomer could determine his meridian, observe each 
star that crossed it, measure time, and secure celestial data of value 



The Story of Egypt 79 

of the heavenly bodies, with simple instruments, were made 
(Fig. 59) ; but these records, like those in geography, have 
been lost. 

Along with this higher progress, the Pharaohs of the Feudal 103. Admin- 
Age much improved the government. Every few years they irrigation 
made census lists to be used in taxation, and a few of these {he^peudal 
earliest census sheets in the world have survived. They erected Age 
huge earthen dikes and made vast basins, to store up the Nile 
waters for irrigation, thus greatly increasing the yield of the 
feudal lands and estates. They measured the height of the 
river from year to year, and their marks of the Nile levels are 
still to be found cut on the rocks at the Second Cataract. Thus 
nearly four thousand years ago they were already doing on a 
large scale what our government has only recently begun to do 
by its irrigation projects among our own arid lands. 

At the same time these rulers of the Feudal Age reached out 104. Pha- 
by sea for the wealth of other lands. Their fleets sailed over mercebyTea; 
among the ^gean islands and probably controlled the large ^predecessor 
island of Crete (§§ 335-345)- They dug a canal from the north Canal four 
end of the Red Sea westward to the nearest branch of the Nile years ago 
in the eastern Delta, where the river divides into a number of 
mouths (see map, p. 36). The Pharaoh's Mediterranean ships 
could sail up the easternmost mouth of the Nile, then enter the 
canal and, passing eastward through it, reach the Red Sea. Thus 
the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were first connected 
by this predecessor of the Suez Canal four thousand years ago. 
Such a connection was as important to the Egyptians as the 
Panama Canal is to us. Nile ships could likewise now sail from 
the eastern Delta directly to the land of Punt (§ 78) and to the 
straits leading to the Indian Ocean. These waters seemed to 
the sailors of the Feudal Age the end of the world, and their 
wondrous adventures there delighted many a circle of villagers 
on the feudal estates (Fig. 58). 

In this age the Pharaoh had organized a small standing army. 
He could now make his power felt both in north and south, in 



8o 



Ancient Times 



105. Military Palestine and in Nubia. He conquered the territory of Nubia 
noS^and ^^ far south as the Second Cataract (see map, p. 36), and thus 
south, and the added two hundred miles of river to the kingdom of Egypt. 

end of the ° ^^ ^ 

Feudal Age Here he erected strong frontier fortresses against the Nubian 
tribes, and these fortresses still stand. The enlightened rule 
of the Pharaohs of the Feudal Age did much to prepare the 
way for Egyptian leadership in the early world. Three of these 
kings bore the name " Sesostris," which became one of the great 
and illustrious names in Egyptian history. But not long after 
1800 B.C. the power of the Pharaohs of the Feudal Age sud- 
denly declined and their line disappeared. 



106. The 

Nile voyage 
— arrival at 
Thebes 



107. Karnak 
■ — arrival of 
the horse in 
Egypt 



Section 9. The Founding of the Empire 

The monuments along the river banks have thus far told us 
the story of two of the three periods^ into which the career of 
this great Nile people falls. After we have left the tombs of the 
Feudal Age and have continued our journey over four hundred 
miles southward from Cairo, all at once we catch glimpses of 
vast masses of stone masonry and lines of tall columns rising 
among the palms on the east side of the river. They are the 
ruins of the once great city_of Thebes, which will tell us the 
story of the third period, the Empire. 

Here we shall find not only a vast cemetery, but also great 
temples (see plan, p. 8 1). A walk around the Temple of Karnak 
at Thebes (Fig. 64) is as instructive to us in studying the Empire 
as we have found the Gizeh cemetery to be in studying the 
Pyramid Age. We find the walls of this immense temple covered 
with enormous sculptures in relief, depicting the wars of the 
Egyptians in Asia. We see the giant figure of the Pharaoh as 
he stands in his war chariot, scattering the enemy before his 
plunging horses (Fig. 60). The Pharaohs of the Pyramid Age 
had never seen a horse (§ 80), and this is the first time we 

1 These three ages are (i) the Pyramid Age, about 3000 to 2500 B.C. (Sec- 
tions 6-7); (2) the Feudal Age, flourishing 2000 B.C. (Section 8); (3) the 
Empire, about 1580 to 1150 B.C. (Sections 9-1 1). 



The Story of Egypt 



8l 



have met the horse on the ancient monuments. After the close 
of the Feudal Age the animal began to be imported from Asia; 
the chariot (Fig. 133) came with him, and Egypt, having learned 
warfare on a scale unknown before, became a military empire. 




Map of Egyptian Thebes 

This map may be compared with the aeroplane view of Karnak (Fig. 64), 
taken over point marked X , and with the view of the western plain 
toward the colossal statues of Amenhotep III and the western cliffs 
(Fig. 69), in and along which lie the tombs of the vast cemetery. Before 
it, and parallel with the cliffs, stretched a long line of temples facing 
the great temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east side of the river. 
The houses of the ancient city have passed away 



The Pharaohs were now great generals with a well-organized 108. Egypt 
standing army made up chiefly of archers and heavy masses of empire 
chariots. With these forces the Pharaoh conquered an empire 
which extended from the Euphrates in Asia to the Fourth Cata- 
ract of the Nile in Africa (see map I, p. 188). By an empire we 



82 



Ancient Times 



f mean a group of nations subdued and ruled over by the most 

I powerful among them. Government began with tiny city-states 

(§ 38), which gradually merged together into nations (§ 74)«, 

but the organization of men had now reached the point where 




Fig. 60. A Pharaoh of the Empire fighting in his Chariot 

The tiny figures of the enemy are scattered beneath the Pharaoh's 
horses. This is one of an enormous series of such scenes, 170 feet 
long, carved in rehef on the outside of the Great Hall of Karnak 
(Fig. 68). Such sculpture was brightly colored and served to enhance 
the architectural effect and to impress the people with the heroism 
of the Pharaoh. The color has now entirely disappeared, and the 
sculpture is much battered and weatherworn. This is the cause of 
the indistinctness in the above sketch 



many nations were combined into an empire including a large 
part of the early oriental world. This world power of the 
Pharaohs lasted from the early sixteenth century to the twelfth 
century b. c. — something over four hundred years. 



The Story of Egypt 



83 



The Karnak Temple (Fig. 64), which stood in the once vast 
city of Thebes, is like a great historical volume telling us much 
of the story of the Egyptian Empire. Behind the great hall 
(Figs, (id and 68) towers a huge obelisk, a shaft of granite in a woman i 



109. The 

reign of 
Queen Hat- 
shepsut, the 
first great 



single piece nearly a hundred feet high (Fig. 65). It was 



history 




Fig. 61. Transportation of Queen Hatshepsut's 350-TON 
Obelisks down the Nile (Fifteenth Century b.c.) 

The two obelisks are lying base to base on a large Nile barge some 
300 feet long. The obelisks are each 97I feet long and weigh about 
350 tons each, the two making a burden of some 700 tons in the barge. 
It is being towed by thirty tugboats in three rows of ten each. Each 
tugboat has thirty-two oarsmen, making nine hundred and sixty oars- 
men in all. Under the 'guidance of the engineers in the other small 
boats these men towed the obelisks downstream from the granite quar- 
ries of the First Cataract to Thebes — a distance of about 150 miles. 
Under each obelisk we can see the sledge on which it was dragged on 
shore to the place where they were both set up in the KarnaCk Temple 
(Fig. 64). The scene is restored from a relief on the wall of the queen's 
temple at Thebes 



erected early in the Empire by the first great woman in history. 
Queen Hatshepsut. There were once two of these enormous 
monuments (see Fig. 65), and it was no small task to cut out 
two such blocks as these from the granite quarries at the 
First Cataract, transport them on a huge boat down the river 
(Fig. 61), and erect them in this temple. But the queen did not 
stop with this achievement. She even dispatched an expedition 



84 



Ancient Times 



of five ships (Fig. 62) through the Red Sea to Punt (§ 78), to 
bring back the luxuries of tropical Africa for another beautiful 
terraced temple which she was erecting against the western 
cliffs at Thebes (Plan, p. 81). Such achievements show what 
an efificient and successful ruler this first great woman was. 




Ficj. 62. Part of the Flep:t of Queen Hatshepsut loading 
IN THE Land of Punt 

Only two of Hatshepsut's fleet of five ships are shown. The sails on 
the long spars are furled and the vessels are moored. The sailors are 
carrying the cargo up the gangplanks, and one of them is teasing an 
ape on the roof of the cabin. The inscriptions above the ships read : 
" The loading of the ships very heavily with marvels of the country 
of Punt; all goodly fragrant woods of God's-Land [the East], heaps of 
myrrh-resin, with fresh myrrh trees, with ebofiy and pure ivory, with 
green gold of Emu, with cinnamon wood, khesyt wood, with two kinds 
of incense, eye-cosmetic, with apes, monkeys, dogs, and with skins 
of the southern panther, with natives and their children. Never was 
brought the like of this for any king who has been since the begin- 
ning." The scene is carved on the wall of the queen's temple at Thebes, 
in the garden of which she planted the myrrh trees 



no. The end As we examine the obelisk of Hatshepsut we find around the 
sut and the base the remains of stone masonry with which it was once walled 
ThutmoseHi ^^ almost up to the top. This was done by the queen's half- 
brother and husband, Thutmose III, in order to cover up the 
records which proclaimed to the world the hated rule of a 
woman. Thus Thutmose III had the names of the queen and 
the men who aided her all cut out and obliterated, including 



TJie Story of Egypt 



85 



that of the skillful architect and engineer who erected this obe- 
lisk and its companion. But the masonry covering the obelisk 
has fallen down, and it still proclaims the fame of Hatshepsut. 
Thutmose III ^Fig. ^^ was the first great general in history, 
the Napoleon of Egypt, the greatest of the Egyptian conquerors. 




i 




A B 

Fig. 63. Portrait of Thutmose III, the Napoleon of Ainxient 

Egypt {A), compared with his Mummy [B) 

This portrait [A], carved in granite, can be compared with the actual 
face of the great conqueror as we have it in his mummy. Such a com- 
parison is shown in B, where the profile of this granite portrait (out- 
side hnes) is placed over the profile of Thutmose Ill's mummy (inside 
lines). The correspondence is very close, showing great accuracy in 
the portrait art of this age 



III. The 

campaigns of 
Thutmose III 
(1501- 
1447 B.C.) 



He ruled for over fifty years, beginning about 1500 B.C. On 
the temple walls at Karnak we can read the story of nearly 
twenty years of warfare, during which Thutmose crushed the 
cities and kingdoms of Western Asia and welded them into an 
enduring empire. At the same time his war fleet carried his 
power even to the ^gean, and one of his generals became 
governor of the ^.gean islands (Fig. 143 ; see map I, p. 188). 



86 Ancient Times 



Section io. The Higher Life of the Empire 

112. Temple The wealth which the Pharaohs captured in Asia and Nubia 
architecture (^^j-j^g the Empire brought them power and magnificence un- 
known to the world before, especially as shown in their vast 
and splendid buildings. A new and impressive chapter in the 
history of art and architecture was begun. The temple of 
Karnak, which we have visited, contains the greatest colon- 
naded hall ever erected by man. The columns of the central 
aisle (Fig. 68) are sixty-nine feet high. The vast capital form- 
ing the summit of each column is large enough to contain a 
group of a hundred men standing crowded upon it at the same 
time. The clerestory windows (Fig. 68) on each side of these 
giant columns are no longer low, depressed openings, as in the 
Pyramid Age (Fig. 5 5 and Fig. 271,7), but they have now become 
fine, tall windows, showing us the Egyptian clerestory hall on its 
way to become the basilica church of much later times (Fig. 271). 

113. The sur- Such temples as these at Thebes were seen through the deep 
the Empire green of clustering palms, among towering obelisks and colos- 
Th'ebes' ^^ ^^ statues of the Pharaohs (Fig. 69). The whole was bright 

with color, flashing at many a point with gold and silver. 
Mirrored in the unruffled surface of the temple lake (Fig. 64), 
it made a picture of such splendor as the ancient world had 
never seen before. As the visitor entered he found himself 

* This point of view is behind (east of) the great Karnak Temple at 
point marked x in plan (p. 81). We look northwestward across the 
Temple and the river to the western cliffs (cf. plan, p. 81). From 
the rear gate below us (lower right-hand corner of view) to the tall 
front wall nearest the river, the Temple is nearly a quarter of a mile 
long, and was nearly two thousand years in course of construction. 
The oldest portions were built by the kings of the Feudal Age, and the 
latest, the front wall, by the Greek kings (the Ptolemies, Section 66). 
The standing obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut (Fig. 65) can be seen rising 
in the middle of the Temple. Beyond it is the vast colonnaded Hall of 
Karnak (Figs. 66 and 68), on the outside wall of which are the great war 
reliefs (Fig. 60). Hidden by the huge front wall is the Avenue of 
Sphinxes (Fig. 67). On the left we see the pool — all that is left of the 
sacred lake (§^ 113). 



i.^;.^.. ■n « i..wwp|^pi i i i ijiaiM|MM ! IBIil 



.->£^^l 




Fig. 64. The Great Temple of Karnak and the Nile 
Valley at Thebes seen from an Aeroplane* 

The area included in this view will be found bounded by two diverg- 
ing dotted lines on the map of Thebes (p. 81). It will be seen that 
our view includes only a portion of the ancient city, which extended 
up and down both sides of the river. For description of Karnak, see 
note on opposite page 




From an etching by George T. Plowman 

Fig. 65. The Obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and her Father 

Thutmose I AT Karnak 
The further obelisk is that of the queen. It was one of a pair transported 
from the First Cataract (Fig. 61), but its mate has fallen and broken into 
pieces. The shaft is 8| feet thick at the base, and the human figure by 
contrast conveys some idea of the vast size of the monument. Its posi- 
tion in the temple can be seen from the aeroplane view (Fig. 64) 




From a pen etching by Sears Gallagher 

Fig. 66. The Colossal Columns of the Nave in the Great 
Hall of Karnak 

These are the columns of the middle two rows in Fig. 68. On the top 

of the capital of each one of these columns a hundred men can stand at 

once. These great columns may be seen in the aeroplane view (Fig. 64) 

just at the left of the two obelisks 




^'i'h »^ ' ,,6 rffiy^*^<»J -^i^„'-'..t.-.w;ii,.iMai, 



The Story of Egypt 



87 



in a spacious and sunlit court, surrounded by splendid colon- 
naded porches. Beyond, all was mystery, as he looked into the 
somber forest of vast columns in the hall behind the court 
(Figs. 66 and 68). These temples were connected by imposing 




Fig. 68. Restoration of- the Great Hall of Karnak, An- 
cient Thebes — Largest Building of the Egyptian Empire 

With the wealth taken in Asia the Egyptian conquerors of the Empire 
enabled their architects to build the greatest colonnaded hall ever 
erected by man. It is 338 feet wide and 170 feet deep, furnishing a 
floor area about equal to that of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, 
although this is only a single room of the Temple. There are one hundred 
and thirty-six columns in sixteen rows. The nave (three central aisles) 
is 79 feet high and contains twelve columns in two rows, which the 
architects have made much higher than the rest, in order to insert 
lofty clerestory windows on each side. Compare the very low windows 
of the earliest clerestory (Fig. 55 and Fig. 271, 7 and 2). In this higher 
form the clerestory passed over to Europe (Fig. 271) 



avenues of sphinxes (Fig. 67), and thus grew up at Thebes 
the first great '^ monumental city " ever built by man — a city 
which as a whole was itself a vast and imposing monument.^ 
Much of the grandeur of Egyptian architecture was due to 
the sculptor and the painter. The colonnades, with flower capi- 
tals, were colored to suggest the plants they represented. The P'^^ 

1 City plans which treat a whole city as a symmetrical and harmonious unit 
are now beginning to be made in America. 



114. Painting 
and sculpture 
in the tern- 




ON 



88 




70. Colossal Portrait Figure of Ramses II at Abu- 
SiMBEL IN Egyptian Nubia 

Four such statues, 75 feet high, adorn the front of this temple, which, like 
the statues, is hewn from the sandstone cliffs. The faces are better pre- 
served than that of the Great Sphinx (Fig. 54) or the portrait statues of 
Amenhotep III (Fig. 69), and we can here see that such vast figures were 
portraits. The face of Ramses II here closely resembles that of his 
mummy (Fig. 123). (From a photograph taken from the top of the crown 
of one of the statues by The University of Chicago Expedition) 






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m 


P^ 


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rS O 


c"' x) "bi) 


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h ^ 4) <u 


O o.u^ 


S H 


O -!->,- "^ 


rj 


Cj w w O 


Is 




W ^ 


c« ^ S c 








O "5 > 


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Q ^ 


rt <u O 
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u^ 


OH bb 


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2 3 




H ffi 


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ai H 




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rt <J 2 

rt O X 


W ^ 


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Ki O >~, „ 


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P4.i^ a. 



The Story of Egypt 89 

vast battle scenes, carved on the temple wall (Fig. 60), were 
painted in bright colors. The portrait statues of the Pharaohs, 
set up before these temples, were often so large that they rose 
above the towers of the temple front itself, — the tallest part of 
the building, ■ — and they could be seen for miles around (Figs. 
69 and 70). The sculptors could cut these colossal figures from 
a single block, although they were sometimes eighty or ninety 
feet high and weighed as much as a thousand tons. This is 
a burden equal to the load drawn by a modern freight train, 
but unlike the trainload it was not cut up into small units of 
light weight, convenient for handling and loading. Nevertheless, 
the engineers of the Empire moved many such vast figures for 
hundreds of miles, using the same methods employed in moving 
obelisks. It is in works of this massive, monumental character 
that the art of Egypt excelled (Fig. 70). 

Two enormous portraits of Amenhotep III, the most luxu- 115. Tombs 
rious and splendid of the Egyptian emperors, still stand on menorthe 
the western plain of Thebes (Fig. 69), across the river from Empire 
Kamak. As we approach them we see rising behind them 
the majestic western cliffs in which are cut hundreds of tomb- 
chapels belonging to the great men of the Empire. Here were 
buried the able generals who marched with the Pharaohs on 
their campaigns in Asia and in Nubia. Here lay the gifted 
artists and architects who built the vast monuments we have 
just visited, and made Thebes the first great "monumental city" 
of the ancient world. Here in these tomb-chapels we may read 
their names and often long accounts of their lives. Here is the 
story of the general who saved Thutmose Ill's life, in a great 
elephant hunt in Asia, by rushing in and cutting off the trunk 
of an enraged elephant which was pursuing the king. Here is 
the tomb of the general who captured the city of Joppa in 
Palestine by concealing his men in panniers loaded on the 
backs of donkeys, and thus bringing them into the city as 
merchandise — an adventure which afterward furnished part 
of the story of ^^ Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." 



90 



Ancient Times 



Ii6. The fur- 
niture and 
equipment of 
the Empire 
lords as found 
in their tombs 



The very furniture which these great men used in their 
houses was put into their tombs. In a neighboring valley was 
recently found the tomb of the parents of Amenhotep Ill's 
queen. Their beautiful villa among the Theban gardens 
was filled with gorgeous furniture which their royal son-in- 
law, Amenhotep III, 
had given to them. 
When this worthy 
old couple died, the 
king had them won- 
derfully embalmed, 
and much of the 
furniture which he 
had given to them 
(Fig. 73) was car- 
ried to the cemetery 
and deposited in 
their tomb, includ- 
ing even the gold- 
covered chariot in 
which the old couple 
were accustomed to 
take their daily air- 
ing thirty-three hun- 
dred years ago. 
Here we find chairs 
covered with gold 
and silver and fitted 
with soft leathern 




Fig. 73. Armchair from the House of 
AN Egyptian Noble of the Empire 

This chair with other furniture from his house 
was placed in his tomb at Thebes in the early 
part of the fourteenth century E.G. There it 
remained for nearly thirty-three hundred years, 
till it was discovered in 1905 and removed to 
the National Museum at Cairo (§ 116) 



cushions, a bed of sumptuous workmanship, jewel boxes, and 
perfume caskets. They are works of art — real triumphs of 
the skill of the Empire craftsmen— and almost as well preserved, 
leather cushion and all, as when first made. Even the shadow 
clock, which belonged to the furniture of a well-equipped house- 
hold, still survives (Fig. 74). 



The Story of Egypt 9 1 • 

These tombs show us also how much farther the Egyptian 117- Religion 
has advanced in religion since the days of the pyramids of *" ^ mpue 
Gizeh. Each of these great men buried in the Theban cemetery 
looked forward to a judgment in the next world, where Osiris 
(§69) was the great judge and king. Eyery good man might 
rise from the dead as Osiris had done, but in the presence 
of Osiris he would be obliged to see his soul weighed in the 




Fig. 74. The Oldest Clock in the World — an Egyptian 
Shadow Clock 

In sunny Egypt a shadow clock was a very practical instrument. In the 
morning the crosspiece {A A) was turned toward the east, and its shadow 
fell on the long arm {BB), where we see it at the first hour. As the sun 
rose higher the shadow shortened and its place on the scale showed the 
hour, which could be read in figures for six hours until noon. At noon 
the head {AA) was turned around to the west and the lengthening after- 
noon shadow on the long arm {BB) was measured in the same way. It 
was from the introduction of such Egyptian clocks that the twelve-hour 
day reached Europe. This clock bears the name of Thutmose III and 
is therefore about thirty-four hundred years old. Nearly a thousand 
years later such clocks were adopted by the Greeks. It is now in the 
Berlin Museum. The headpiece {AA) is restored after Borchardt 

balances over against the symbol of truth and justice (head- 
piece, p. 74). The dead man's friends put into his coffin a 
roll of papyrus containing prayers and magic charms which 
would aid him in the hereafter, and among these was a picture 
of the judgment. We now call this roll the ^' Book of the 
Dead" (headpiece, p. 74). 

When the Empire was about two hundred years old, Amen- 
hotep Ill's youthful son, Amenhotep IV, became Pharaoh in 
his father's place. He believed in only one god, the Sun-god, 



92 



Ancie7it Times 



Ii8. The 

religious r 
revolution of 
Amenhotep 
IV (Ikhnaton) 



119. Ikhna- 
ton's new 
capital, now 
called 
Amarna 



120. Ikhna- 
ton's hymns 
to A ton, the 
sole God 



and he began a new and remarkable chapter in the religious 
history of Egypt by the attempt to destroy the old gods of 
Eg^y^-pt and to induce the people to adopt the exclusive worship 
of the Sun-god. He commanded that throughout the great 
Empire, including its people in both Africa and Asia, only the 
Sun-god, whom he called A ton, should be worshiped. In order 
that the people might forget the old gods, he closed all the 
temples and cast out their priests. Everywhere he also had 
the names of the gods erased and cut out, especially on all 
temple walls. He particularly hated Amon, or Amen, the 
great Theban god of the Empire whose temple we visited at 
Karnak. His own royal name, Amen-hotep (meaning " Amen 
rests "), contained this god Ameii's name, and he therefore 
changed his name Amenhotep to Ikhnaton, which means '' Aton 
(the Sun-god) is satisfied." 

Ikhnaton, as we must now call him,, finally forsook magnifi- 
cent Thebes, where there were so many temples of the old 
gods, and built a new city farther down the river, which he 
named 'J_Horizon of Aton." It is now called AmarnaJ^see map, 
p. 36). The city^ was forsaken a few years after Ikhnaton's 
death, and beneath the rubbish of its ruins to-day we find the 
lower portions of the walls of the houses and palaces which 
once adorned it. Recently the ruins of the studio of a sculp- 
tor were uncovered there and found to contain many beautiful 
works, which have greatly increased our knowledge of the 
wonderful sculpture of the age (Fig. 71). The cliffs behind the 
city still contain the cliff-tombs of the followers whom the young 
king was able to convert to the new faith, and in them we find 
engraved on the walls beautifully sculptured scenes picturing 
the life of the now forgotten city. 

In these Amarna tomb-chapels we may still read on the walls 
the hymns of praise to the Sun-god, which Ikhnaton himself 
wrote. They show us the simplicity and beauty of the young 
king's faith in the sole God. He had gained the belief that 
one God created not only all the lower creatures but also all 



The Story of Egypt 93 

races of men, both Egyptians and foreigners. Moreover, the 
king saw in his God a kindly Father, who maintained all his 
creatures by his goodness, so that even the birds in the marshes 
were aware of his kindness, and uplifted their wings like arms 
to praise him, as a beautiful line in one of the hymns tells us. 
In all the progress of men which we have followed through 
thousands of years, no one had ever before caught such a 
vision of the great Father of all. Such a belief in one god 
is called monotheism, which literally means one-god-ism. 

Section i i . The Decline and Fall of the 
Egyptian F^mpire 

A new faith like this could not be understood by the common 121. ikhna- 
people of the fourteenth century B.C. The country was full of at home" 
the discontented priests of the old gods, and equally dissatisfied 
soldiers of the neglected army. The priests secretly plotted 
with the troops against the king, and they found willing ears 
among the idle soldiery. Confusion and disturbance arose in 
Egypt, and the conquered countries in Asia were preparing 
to revolt. 

The consequences in Asia have been revealed to us by a 122. ikhna- 
remarkable group of over three hundred letters, part of the abroad^'the^ 
royal records stored in one of Ikhnaton's government offices 
at Amarna. Here they had lain for over three thousand years, 
when they were found some years ago by native diggers. They 
are written on clay tablets (§ 147), in Babylonian writing (§ 148). 
Most of these letters proved to be from the kings of Western 
Asia to the Pharaoh, and they form the oldest international 
correspondence in the world (Fig. 126). They shov/ us how 
these kings were gradually shaking off the rule of the 
Pharaoh, so that the Egyptian Empire in Asia was rapidly 
falling to pieces. The Pharaoh's noiihern territory in Syria 
(see map I, p. 188) was being taken by the Hittites, who came 
in from Asia Minor (§ 359), while his southern territory in 



Amarna 
letters 



94 



Attcient Times 



123. Death 
of Ikhnaton; 
partial resto- 
ration of the 
Egyptian 
Empire, last 
great power 
of Age 
of Bronze ; 
coming of 
iron 



124. Foreign 
mercenaries 
in the Egyp- 
tian army ; 
invasion of 
the North- 
erners ; fall of 
the Empire 



I 
125. The ' 

bodies of the 

Egyptian 

emperors 



Palestine was being invaded by the Hebrews, who were 
drifting in from the desert (§ 293). 

In the midst of these troubles at home and abroad the 
young Ikhnaton died, leaving no son behind him. Although 
a visionary and an idealist, he was the most remarkable genius 
of the early oriental world before the Hebrews ; but the faith 
in one god which he attempted to introduce perished with him. 
A new line of kings, the greatest of whom were Seti I (Fig. 72) 
and his son Ramses II (Fig. 123), after desperate efforts were 
able to restore to some extent the Egyptian Empire. But 
they were unable to drive the Hittites out of Syria, for these 
Hittite invaders from Asia Minor possessed iron (§ 360), which 
they could use for weapons, while the declining Egyptian Empire 
was the last great power of the Age of Bronze. 

At Thebes the symptoms of the coming fall may be seen 
even at the present day. If we examine the great war pictures 
on the Theban temples which we have been visiting, we find 
in the battle scenes of the later Empire great numbers of 
foreigners serving in the Egyptian army. This shows that the 
Egyptians had finally lost their temporary interest in war and 
were calling in foreigners to fight their battles. Among these 
strangers are the peoples of the northern Mediterranean whom 
we left there in the Late Stone Age (§ 44). Here on the 
Egyptian monuments we find them after they have got from 
eastern peoples the art of using metal. With huge bronze 
swords in their hands we see them serving as hired soldiers 
in the Egyptian army (tailpiece, p. 519). They and other Medi- 
terranean foreigners (§ 378) finally invaded Egypt in such 
numbers that the weakened Egyptian Empire fell, in the middle 
of the twelfth century B. c. 

The great Pharaohs, who maintained themselves for over 
four hundred years as emperors, were buried here at Thebes. 
On the other side of the cliffs behind the huge statues of 
Amenhotep HI (Fig. 69) is a wild and desolate valley formed 
by a deep depression in the western desert (Fig. 75). Here, in 



The Story of Egypt 



95 




over forty vast rock-hewn galleries reaching hundreds of feet 
into the mountain, the bodies of the Egyptian emperors were 
laid to rest, only to suffer pillage and robbery after the fall of 
the Empire. Their weak successors as kings at Thebes hurried 
the royal bodies from one 
hiding place to another, and 
finally concealed them in a 
secret chamber hewn for this 
purpose in the western cliffs. 
Here they lay undisturbed 
for nearly three thousand 
years, until, in 1881, they 
were discovered and removed 
to the National Museum at 
Cairo, where they still rest 
(cf. Fig. 72). Thus we are 
still able to look into the 
very faces of these lords of 
Egypt and Western Asia 
who lived and ruled from 
thirty-one hundred to thirty- 
five hundred years ago. 

Thus ends the story of 
the Empire at Thebes. The 
pyramids, tombs, and tem- 
ples along the Nile have told ^^ ^^^ Pharaohs, although long ago 
US the history of early Egypt stripped of their valuables by tomb >^ 
in three epochs : the Pvra- robbers, have survived and now lie ' 

. „ . , , '' , in the National Museum of Egypt at 

mids of Gizeh and the ^^^^^ ^pj^ ^2^ 

neighboring cemeteries of 

Memphis have told us about the Pyramid Age ; the cliff-tombs, 
which we found on the Nile voyage, have revealed the history'^ 
of the Feudal Age ; and the temples and cliff -tombs of Thebes ' 
have given us the story of the Empire. The Nile has become 
for us a great volume of history, Let us remember, however, 



Fig. 75. Valley at Thebes 

WHERE THE PhARAOHS OF THE 

Empire were buried 

In the Empire (after 1600 B.C.) the 
Pharaohs had ceased to erect pyra- 
mids. They excavated their tombs 
in the cliff walls of this valley (see 
plan, p. 81), penetrating in long 
galleries hundreds of feet into the of the Nile 
rock. Taken from here and con- voyage 
cealed near by, the bodies of many 



126. Final 
significance 



96 



Ancient Times 



that, preceding these three great chapters of civilization on the 
Nile, we also found here the earlier story of how man passed 
from Stone Age barbarism to a civilization possessed of metal, 
writing, and government (§ 66). On the other hand, as we 



Oval containing name of 
Ptolemy in hieroglyphics 




PTOLEMAIOS 

I 11 111 IV V VI riiriiiix 
\~\ (/ and jr) =r P in both nam.es 
r^ (//) = T in one name 

X> I (/// and ^) = in both names 

, (//^and 2) = L in both names 
= M in one name 

= AI in one name 

rr S in one name 




Oval containing name of 
Cleopatra in hieroglyphics 




KLEOPATRA 

123 4567 8 



(6 and 9) = A in two places 



K in one name 
E in one name 



0) 



(7) 

(70) 



: T in one name 
: R in one name 

unpronounced signs 
placed at end of 
all feminine names 



Fig. ']6. Diagram showing the First Steps in Champollion's 
Decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphics* 



look forward, we should remember also that the three great 
chapters did not end the story ; for Egyptian institutions and 
civilization continued far down into the Christian Age and 
greatly influenced later history in Europe (§§ 657, 98 1, and 1063). 



The Story of Egypt 97 

Section 12. The Decipherment of Egyptian 
Writing by Champollion 

Finally, our Nile voyage has also shown us how we gain 127. In mod- 
knowledge of ancient men and their deeds from the monuments 0^" abjrto *^ 
and records which they have left behind. We have also noticed ''P^ ^gyp- 

-^ tian writing 

how greatly the use of the earliest written documents aids us before 1822 
in putting together the story. If we had made our journey up 

* Champollion found an obelisk bearing on its base a GrggJc in- 
scription, showing that the obelisk belonged to a king Ptolemy and 
his queen Cleopatra. The obelisk shaft bore an inscription in hiero- 
glyphics which he therefore thought must somewhere contain the 
names Ptolemy and Cleopatra. Other scholars had shown that the 
ovals, or ''cartouches" (see opposite page), so common on Egyptian 
monuments, contained royal names. Examination showed izvo such 
ovals on the shaft of the obelisk. He concluded that the hieroglyphs 
in these two ovals spelled the names Ptolemy and Cleopatra. He then 
proceeded to compare them with the Greek spelling of Ptolemy 
(Piotemaios) and Cleopatra. These Greek spellings (in 02ir letters) 
will be found in Fig. 76, each paired with its corresponding hiero- 
glyphic form. All signs and letters in the left pair are numbered 
with Roman numerals, and in the right pair with Arabic numerals. 
The first sign (I) in oval A is an oblong rectangle, and if it really is 
the first letter in Ptolemy's name, it must be the letter P. Now the 
fifth letter in Cleopatra's name is also a P, and so the fifth sign in 
the oval B ought also to be an oblong rectangle. To Champollion's 
delight oval B did not disappoint him, and sign 5 proved to be an 
oblong rectangle. He was at first troubled by the fact that in his next 
comparison, II and 7 in the two ovals did not prove to be alike as the 
sign for T, but he concluded that 7 must be a second form for T, and 
he was right. The next two signs in oval A (HI and IV) corre- 
sponded exactly with 4 and 2 in oval B, and showed him that he was 
certainly on the right road. Although the vowels (e.g. VII and 3) 
caused him some trouble, he soon saw that Egyptian was inaccurate in 
writing the vowels, or even omitted them (see Fig. 29). From these 
two names he had proved that the Egyptians possessed an alphabet 
and not merely signs for whole syllables or whole words. He had also 
learned the sounds of twelve of the letters (see table of signs below 
the names) and laid the foundation for completing the decipherment, 
by the aid of the Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207), which he then for the first 
time understood how to use, after scholars had been working on it in 
vain for over twenty years. This was in 1822, and Champollion then 
announced his discovery to the French Academy in Paris. 



98 



Ande?it Times 



128. Cham- 
pollion's first 
efforts at 
decipher- 
ment 



129. Cham- 
pollion's 
successful de- 
cipherment 



130. Tran- 
sition to Asia 



the Nile a hundred years ago, however, we would have had no 
one to tell us what these Egyptian records meant. For the last 
man who could read Egyptian hieroglyphs died over a thousand 
years ago. A hundred years ago, therefore, no one understood 
the curious writing which travelers found covering the great 
monuments along the Nile. 

For a long time scholars puzzled over the strange Nile 
records, but made little progress in reading them. Then a 
young Frenchman named Champollion took up the problem, 
and after years of discouraging failure he began to make 
progress. He discovered the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra 
written in hieroglyphics. He was thus able to determine the 
sounds of twelve hieroglyphic signs which he proved to be 
alphabetic (see explanation of Fig. 76). Champollion was then 
able to read several other royal names, and in 1822, in a famous 
letter to the French Academy, he announced his discovery and 
explained the steps he had taken. 

It was not until this point was reached that he was able to 
make use of the well-known Rosetta Stone, which was there- 
fore not the first key employed by Champollion. But the 
Rosetta Stone (Fig. 207) then enabled him rapidly to increase 
his list of known hieroglyphic signs and to learn the meanings 
of words and the construction of sentences. When he died, in 
1832, he had written a little grammar and prepared a small 
dictionary of hieroglyphic. There remains even nov/ much to 
learn about the Egyptian language and writing, but Champol- 
lion's marvelous achievement laid the foundations of a new 
science now called Egyptology, which has restored to the world 
a lost chapter of human history nearly three thousand years in 
length. Thus the monuments of the Nile have gained a voice 
and have told us their wonderful story of how man gained 
civilization. 

In a similar way the monuments discovered along the Tigris 
and Euphrates rivers in Asia have been deciphered and made 
to tell their story. They show us that, following the Egyptians, 



The Story of Egypt 99 

the peoples of Asia emerged from barbarism, gained indus- 
tries, learned the use of metals, devised a system of writing, 
and finally rose to the leading position of power in the ancient 
world. We must therefore turn, in the next chapter, to the 
story of the early Orient in Asia. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 8. What ages do the monuments up the Nile reveal 
to us? Describe the rule of a Feudal Age baron. Describe his 
library. What kind of progress had been made since the Pyramid 
Age.? Describe the science of the time. What great commercial 
link between two seas was created? 

Section 9. Write a description of what you see from an aero- 
plane over the east end of the Temple of Karnak. How did the 
Pharaohs who built Karnak differ from those who built the pyramids ? 
Who was the first great woman in history ? Tell something of her 
reign. Tell about the reign of the greatest Egyptian general. What 
is an empire? What was theextent of the Egyptian Empire? 

Section 10. What did the Egyptian emperors do with the wealth 
gained from subject peoples? Describe an empire temple and its 
surroundings. Describe the great Karnak hall, and tell how the clere- 
story was improved. Give an account of the Theban cemetery and 
what it contains. Who tried to introduce the earliest belief in one 
god? Describe the attempt. 

Section ii. What were the consequences of Ikhnaton's move- 
ment? Tell about the Amarna letters. What Northerners held 
Syria, and what new weapons did they have? What do the war 
pictures at Thebes show us about the Egyptian army ? What 
foreigners invaded Egypt and aided in destroying the Empire? 
What happened to the bodies of the emperors ? Summarize the 
ages we have learned along the Nile from the pyramids to Thebes. 

Section i 2. Why were our great-grandfathers unable to read 
hieroglyphic ? Who deciphered it, and when ? What Egyptian sign 
represents the first letter in Ptolemy's name ? What Egyptian sign 
represents the fifth sign in Cleopatra's name? Compare the fourth 
Egyptian sign in Ptolemy's name with the second sign in Cleopatra's 
name. Would you call this an accident or proof that the lion equals Z? 
What monument did Champollion next use? Describe it (Fig. 207). 




->^ 



'^^^^^,,^^*^'^^^'^(^^'^^- 



CHAPTER IV 

WESTERN ASIA : BABYLONIA 

Section 13. The Lands and Races of 
Western Asia 



131. Water 
boundaries 
of Western 
Asia; moun- 
tainous north, 
desert south 



The westernmost extension of Asia is an irregular region 
roughly included within the circuit of waters marked out by the 
Caspian and Black seas on the north, by the Mediterranean 
and Red seas on the west, and by the Indian Ocean and the 
Persian Gulf on the south and east. It is a region consisting 
chiefly of mountains in the north and desert in the south. The 
earliest home of men in this great arena of Western Asia is a 
borderland between the desert and the mountains, a kind of 
cultivable fringe of the desert, a fertile crescent having the 
mountains on one side and the desert on the other. 

Note. The above scene shows us the Semitic nomads on the Fertile Cres- 
cent along the Sea of Galilee. In spring the region is richly overgrown, but the 
vegetation soon fades. The dark camel's-hair tents of these wandering shepherds 
are easily carried from place to place as they seek new pasturage (§ 134). They 
live on the milk and flesh of the flocks. 

100 



\ 



Western Asia : Babylonia lOI 

This fertile crescent is approximately a semicircle, with the 132. The Fer 
open side toward the south, having the west end at the south- between ^^" 
east corner of the Mediterranean, the center directly north of 
Arabia, and the east end at the north end of the Persian Gulf 
(see map, p. 100). It lies like an army facing south, with one 
wing stretching along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean 
and the other reaching out to the Persian Gulf, while the center 
has its back against the northern mountains. The end of the 
western wing is Palestine ; Assyria makes up a large part of 
the center; while the end of the eastern wing is Babylonia. 

This great semicircle, for lack of a name, may be called the 133. The 
Fertile Crescent.-^ It may also be likened to the shores of a 
desert-bay, upon which the mountains behind look down — a 
bay not of water but of sandy waste, some five hundred miles 
across, forming a northern extension of the Arabian desert 
and sweeping as far north as the latitude of the northeast 
corner of the Mediterranean. This desert-bay is a limestone 
plateau of some height — too high indeed to be watered by 
the Tigris and Euphrates, which have cut canons obliquely 
across it. Nevertheless, after the meager winter rains, wide 
tracts of the northern desert-bay are clothed with scanty grass, 
and spring thus turns the region for a short time into grass- 
lands. The history of Western Asia may be described as an 
age-long struggle between the mountain peoples of the north 
and the desert wanderers of these grasslands — a struggle 
which is still going on — for the possession of the Fertile 
Crescent, the shores of the desert-bay. 

Arabia is totally lacking in rivers and enjoys but a few 134. The 
weeks of rain in midwinter ; hence it is a desert very little ert and the 
of which is habitable. Its people are and have been from the ^^^^ 
remotest ages a great white race called Semites. The Semites 
have always been divided into many tribes and groups, just as 

1 There is no name, either geographical or political, which includes all of this 
great semicircle (see map, p. loo). Hence we are obliged to coin a term and call 
it the Fertile Crescent 



I02 Ancient Times 

were the American Indians, whom we call Sioux, or Seminoles, 
or Iroquois. So we shall find many tribal or group names 
among the Semites. With two of these we are familiar — the 
Arabs, and the Hebrews whose descendants dwell among us. 
They all spoke and still speak dialects of the same tongue, of 
which Hebrew was one. For ages they have moved up and 
down the habitable portions of the Arabian world, seeking pas- 
turage for their flocks and herds (headpiece, p. loo). Such 
wandering shepherds are called nomads, and we remember 
how their manner ^of life arose after the domestication of 
sheep and goats (see §§ 35-36). 
135. Cease- From the earliest times, when the spring grass of the 

thef nomad northern wilderness is gone, they have been constantly drifting 
erttotheFer- ^^ from the sandy sea upon the shores of the northern desert- 
tile Crescent bay. If they can secure a footing there, they slowly make the 
transition from the wandering life of the desert nomad to the 
settled life of the agricultural peasant (see § 36). This slow 
shift at times swells into a great tidal wave of migration, when 
the wild hordes of the wilderness roll in upon the fertile shores 
of the desert-bay — a human tide from the desert to the towns 
which they overwhelm. We can see this process going on for 
thousands of years. Among such movements we are familiar 
with the passage of the Hebrews from the desert into Pales- 
tine, as described in the Bible, and some readers will recall the 
invasions of the Arab hosts which, when converted to Moham- 
medanism, even reached Europe and threatened to girdle the 
Mediterranean (§ 1 155). After they had adopted a settled town 
life, the colonies of the Semites stretched far westward through 
the Mediterranean, especially in northern Africa, even to south- 
ern Spain and the Atlantic (see diagram, Fig. 112, and map, 
p. 288). But it took many centuries for the long line of their 
settlements to creep slowly westward until it reached the 
Atlantic, and we must begin with the Semites in the desert. 
Out on the wide reaches of the desert there are no bound- 
aries ; the pasturage is free as air to the first comer. No man 



Western Asia: Babylonia 103 

of the tribe owns land ; there are no landholding rich and 136. Lack of 
no landless poor. The men of the desert know no law. The LnVindus- 
keen-eyed desert marauder looks with envy across the hills ^^g gg^^^^f 
dotted with the flocks of the neighboring tribe, which may be nomads of 
his when he has slain the solitary shepherd at the well. But 
if he does so, he knows that his ow?i family will suffer death or 
heavy damages, not at the hands of the State, but at the hands 
of the slain shepherd's family. This custom, known as "blood 
revenge," has a restraining influence like that of law. Under 
such conditions there is no State. Writing and records are 
unknown, industries are practically nonexistent, and the desert 
tribesmen lead a life of complete freedom. The Turkish gov- 
ernment owning Arabia to-day is as powerless to control the 
wandering Arabs of the wilderness as were formerly our own 
authorities in suppressing the lawlessness of our own herdsmen 
whom we called cowboys. 

The tribesmen drift with their flocks along the margin of 137. Traffic 
the Fertile Crescent till they discern a town among the palm caravan 
groves. Objects of picturesque interest to the curious eyes of 
the townsmen, they appear in the market place to traffic for 
the weapons, utensils, and raiment with which the nomad can- 
not dispense (headpiece, p. 197). They soon learn to carry 
goods from place to place and thus become not only the 
common carriers of the settled communities but also traders 
on their own account, fearlessly leading their caravans across 
the wastes of the desert-bay, lying like a sea between Syria- 
Palestine and Babylonia. They became the greatest merchants 
of the ancient world, as their Hebrew descendants among us 
still are at the present day. ' 

The wilderness is the nomad's home. Its vast solitudes have 138- Religion 

of the 

tinged his soul with solemnity. His imagmation peoples the nomad . 
far reaches of the desert with invisible and uncanny creatures, 
who inhabit every rock and tree, hilltop and spring. These 
creatures are his gods, whom he believes he can control by the 
utterance of magic charms — the earliest prayers. He believes 



I04 



Ancient Times 



139. The 

tribal god of 
the nomad 



140. The 

nomad's 
thoughts 
about his 
tribal god ; 
his ideas of 
right 



141. The 

western 
Semites on 
the west end 
of the Fertile 
Crescent 



that such charms render these uncanny gods powerless to do 
him injury and compel them to grant him aid. 

The nomad pictures each one of these beings as controlling 
only a little comer of the great world, perhaps only a well and 
its surrounding pastures. At the next well, only a day's march 
away, there is another god, belonging to the next tribe. For 
each tribe have a favorite or tribal god, who, as they believe, 
journeys with them from pasture to pasture, sharing their food 
and their feasts and receiving as his due from the tribesmen 
the firstborn of their flocks and herds. 

The thoughts of the desert wanderer about the character of 
such a god are crude and barbarous, and his religious customs are 
often savage, even leading him to sacrifice his children to appease 
the angry god. On the other hand, the nomad has a dawning 
sense of justice and of right, and he feels some obligations of 
kindness to his fellows which he believes are the compelling voice 
of his god. Such feelings at last became lofty moral vision, which 
made the Semites the religious teachers of the civilized world. 

As early as 3000 B.C. they were drifting in from the desert 
and settling in Palestine, on the western end of the Fertile 
Crescent, where we find them in possession of walled towns 
by 2500 B.C. (Fig. 124). These predecessors of the Hebrews in 
Palestine were a tribe called Canaanites (§§ 293-294) ; farther 
north settled a powerful tribe known as Amorites (§175); 
while along the shores of north Syria (Fig. 159) some of these 
one-time desert wanderers had taken to the sea, and had be- 
come the Phoenicians (§ 396). By 2000 B.C. all these settled 
communities of the western Semites had developed no mean 
degree of civilization, drawn for the most part from Egypt and 
Babylonia. Their home along the east end of the Mediter- 
ranean was on the highway between these two countries, 
and they were in constant contact with both (map, p. 100). The 
Phoenicians, however, belonged to the Mediterranean, and we 
shall take up their story in discussing the history of the 
eastern Mediterranean (Sections 39 and 40). 



Western Asia : Babylo7iia 



lo: 



At the same time we can watch similar movements of the 
nomads at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent, along 
the lower course of the Tigris and Euphrates (Pig. 77), 
which we shall henceforth speak of as the '' Two Rivers." 
They rise in the northern mountains (see map, p. 100), whence 
they issue to cross the Fertile Crescent and to cut obliquely 
southeastward through the northern bay of the desert. Here 



142. The east 
end of the 
Fertile Cres- 
cent; the 
Two Rivers 
and the 
three great 
chapters in 
their history 






Fig. ']']. The Euphrates at Babylon in Winter 

The winter rainfall (§ 144) is so slight that the river shrinks to a very 
low level and its bed is exposed and dry almost to the middle. In 
summer the rains and melting -snows in the northern mountains swell 
the river till it overflows its banks and inundates the Babylonian plain. 
The house on the right was the dwelling of the archaeological expedition 
which until 191 7 was engaged in excavating Babylon (Fig. in) 

on these two great rivers of Western Asia developed the earliest 
civilization known in Asia. Just as on the Nile, so here on the 
Two Rivers we shall find three great chapters in the story. 

As on the Nile, so also the earliest of the three chapters of 
Tigris-Euphrates history will be found in the lower valley near 
the rivers' mouths. This earliest chapter is the story of Baby- 
lonia.^ As the Two Rivers approach most closely to each other, 
about one hundred and sixty or seventy miles from the Persian 

1 The other two chapters of Tigris-Euphrates history are Assyria and the 
Chaldean Empire (Chapter V). 



143. The 

Plain of 
Shinar (or 
Babylonia), 
the scene of 
the earliest 
chapter of 
Tigris- 
Euphrates 
history 



io6 



Ancient Times 



Gulf,^ they emerge from the desert and enter a low plain of 
fertile soil, formerly brought down by the rivers. This plain 
is Babylonia, the 'eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. But 
during the first thousand years of the known history of this 
plain the later city of Babylon had not yet arisen, or was a 
mere village p'.. yixig little or no part in the history of the 




Sketch Map of Sumer and Akkad 



144. Area of 
the Plain of 
Shinar; its 
fertility 



region. The plain was then called Shinar, and Babylonia is 
a name that properly should not be applied to it until after 
2100 B.C. (see § 176). 

Rarely more than forty miles wide, the Plain of Shinar con- 
tained probably less than eight thousand square miles of 
cultivable soil — roughly equal to the state of New Jersey or the 

1 This distance applies only to ancient Babylonian and Assyrian days. The 
rivers have since then filled up the Persian Gulf for one hundred and fdty to 
one hundred and sixty miles, and the gulf is that much shorter at the present 
day (see note under scale on map, p. 100). 



Western Asia: Babylonia lo/ 

area of Wales.^ It lies in the Mediterranean belt of rainy winter 
and dry summer, but the rainfall is so scanty (less than three 
inches a year) that irrigation of the fields is required in order 
to ripen the grain. When properly irrigated the Plain of Shinar 
is prodigiously fertile, and the chief source of wealth in ancient 
Shinar was agriculture. This plain was the scene of the most 
important and long-continued of those frequent struggles be- 
tween the mountaineer and the nomad, of which we have 
spoken (§ 133). We are now to follow the story of the first 
series of those struggles, lasting something like a thousand 
years, and ending about 2100 B.C. 

Section 14. Rise of Sumerian Civilization and 
Early Struggle of Sumerian and Semite 

The mountaineers were not Semitic and show no relationship 145. Un- 
to the Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert.^ We are indeed of the early 
unable to connect the earliest of these mountain peoples with 
any of the great racial groups known to us. We find them 
shown on monuments of stone as having shaven heads and 
wearing shaggy woolen kilts (Fig. 90). While they were still 
using stone implements, some of these mountaineers, now 
known as Sumerians, pushed through the passes of the eastern 
mountains at a very early date. Long before 3000 B.C. they 
had reclaimed the marshes around the mouths of the Two Rivers. 

1 The current impressions of the cultivable area of Babylonia take no account 
of the fact that the Babylonian plain was once much shorter than it is now (p. io6, 
note), nor of the further fact that on the north of it Mesopotamia is a desert which, 
moreover, does not belong to Babylonia. Only northern Mesopotamia is cultivable 
(especially the upper valleys of the Balikh and the Khabur rivers). The modem 
maps do not show this fact; for example, the Centwy Atlas confines the desert 
to the right bank of the Euphrates and does not admit it to Mesopotamia! The 
usually accepted ideas of the cultivable area of Babylonia are therefore enor- 
mously in excess of the actual area reached by irrigation. 

2 On the other hand, although they were certainly white races, the moun- 
taineers exhibited no relationship to the Indo-European group of peoples who 
were already spreading through the country north and east of the Caspian at a 
very early date. The Indo-European peoples, from whom we ourselves have 
descended, are discussed in Section 21. 



mountameers 



108 



Ancie7it Times 



146. Their 
material civi- 
lization 



They gradually took possession of the southern section of the 
Plain of Shinar, and the region they held at length came to be 
called Sumer (see map, p. 106). 

Their settlements of low mud-brick huts crept gradually north- 
ward along the Euphrates (see map, p. 106) ; for the banks of 
the Tigris were too high for convenient irrigation. They learned 
to control the spring freshets with dikes, to distribute the waters 




Fig. ^Z. AnciExXt Babylonian Seeder, or Machine Planter 
(After Clay) 

The seeder is drawn by a yoke of oxen, with their driver beside them. 
Behind the seeder follows a man holding it by two handles. It is very 
pointed and evidently makes a shallow trench in the soil as it moves. 
Rising from the frame of the seeder is a vertical tube {a) on the top of 
which is a funnel {b). A third man walking beside the seeder is shown 
dropping the grain into this funnel with one hand ; with the other he 
holds what is probably a sack of seed grain suspended from his shoul- 
ders. The grain drops down through the tube and falls into the trench 
made by the seeder. The scene is carved on a small stone seal 

in irrigation trenches, and to reap large harvests of grain (Fig. 78). 
They had already received barley and split wheat (p. 38, note), 
which were their two chief grains as in Egypt ; and they Called 
the split wheat by its Egyptian name. They also already pos- 
sessed cattle, sheep, and goats. Oxen drew the plow, and 
donkeys pulled wheeled carts and chariots ; the wheel as a 
burden-bearing device appeared here for the first time.-^ But 

1 Probably earlier than the wheel in the Swiss lake-villages or on the chariot 
race courses of the Late Stone Age (§ 39) in the West. 



Western Asia : Babylonia 1 09 

the horse was still unknown. Traffic with the upper river had 
also brought in metal, probably from the Nile valley, and the 
smith learned to fashion utensils of copper. But he had not 



:l 



Fig. 79. Early Sumerian Clay Tablet with Cuneiform 
Writing (Twenty-eighth Century b.c.) 

This tablet was written toward the close of the early period of the city- 
kings (§ 162), a generation before the accession of Sargon I (§ 166). 
It contains business accounts; the numbers can be recognized as 
circles and other curved signs made with the circular 7ipper end of the 
scribe's stylus. The picture signs have at this time long since become 
groups of wedges as shown in Fig. 80. (By permission of Dr. Hussey) 

yet learned to harden the copper into bronze by admixture of 
tin (§ 336). 

Trade and government taught these people to make records 147. Rise of 

t -1 . -1 . / r -i-^- /-N • 1 1 • r J Sumerian pic- 

scratched m rude pictures (ci. rig. 26) with the tip 01 a reed torial writing 
on a fiat oval or disk of soft clay. When dried in the sun o^^lay 



no 



A7icieiit Times 



148. Trans- 
formation of 
Sumerian pic- 
ture signs 
into cunei- 
form signs, 
and resulting 
loss of the 
pictures 



such a clay record became very hard ; and if well baked in an 
oven, it became an almost imperishable pottery tablet (Fig. 79). 

On the earliest 
surviving speci- 
mens of such 
tablets we can 
still recognize 
the original pic- 
tures (Fig. 80) 
which made up 
the writing, just 
as in Egypt. 

The reed with 
which the pic- 
tures were made 
usually had a 
blunt, square- 
tipped end. 
The tablet was 
held at an ob- 
lique angle as 
the stylus held 
straight up was 
applied to the 
clay. We may 
see a writer 
so using it in 
Fig. 1 01. The 
writer did not 
scratch the lines 
of his picture; 
but in making 
a single line he impressed one corner of the square tip of the 
reed into the soft clay, and then raised it again to impress 
another line in the same way. Owing to the oblique tilt of the 



11 



III 



JV 



VI 



VII 



VIII 



Foot turned 
around in 2 


rv 


1^ 


t5!T 


Donkey 


U 


^ 


^^ 


Bird; turned 
over with feet 
to the right 


1^ 


"H' 


kT<T5^ 


Fish 


tf 


^ 


W 


Star 


* 


^ 


w^ 


Ox ; turned 
over in 2 


V 


!^ 


^^ 


Sun or Day 


o 


r> 




Grain ; top of 
stalk turned 


"^^ 

-^^ 


»» 


^ 



Fig. 8o. Early Babylonian Signs showing 

THEIR Pictorial Origin. (Chiefly from 

Barton) 

This list of eight signs shows clearly the pictures 
from which the signs came. The oldest form is in 
column /; column ^ shows the departure from the 
picture and the appearance of the signs as the lines 
began to become wedges. In column j are the later 
forms, consisting only of wedges and showing no 
resemblance to the original picture. The original 
forms of signs V, VI, and PVI, in column /, have not 
yet been actually found, but they are assumed from 
the existent forms shown in column 2 



Western Asia : BadyConia in 

tablet, each line thus made was wider at one end than at the 
other, and hence appeared triangular or wedge-shaped, thus >— 
or y. Every picture or sign thus came to be made up of a 
group of wedge-shaped lines like h^, which was once a star, 
or CT-, once a foot (Fig. 80, V, j, and I, j). We therefore call 
the system cuneiform^ (Latin, cuneus, meaning " wedge "), or 
wedge-form writing. Pictures made up of these wedge lines 
became more and more difficult to recognize, especially as 
speed in writing increased. All resemblance to the earlier 
pictures finally disappeared. 

The transition from' the picture stage to the phonetic stage 149. Rise 
(§ 53) was early made. Sumerian writing finally possessed over cuneifonn 
three hundred and fifty signs, but each such sign represented SaLtkcu- 
a syllable^ or a word, that is, a group of sounds ; the Sumerian neiform signs 
system never developed an alphabet of the letters which made 
up the syllables. That is, there were signs for syllables like kar 
or ban, but no signs for the letters k or r, b or ;?, which made 
up such syllables. Hence we cannot insert here an alphabet, as 
we did in discussing Egypt. 

These clay records show us that in measuring time the 150. The Su- 

^ . ., , 1-1 merian moon- 

Sumerian scribe began a new month with every new moon, calendar; 
and he made his year of twelve of these moon-months, year-names 
We remember (see § 60) that twelve such months fell far 
short of making up a year. The scribe therefore slipped 
in an extra month whenever he found that he had reached 
the end of his calendar year a month or so ahead of the 
seasons. This inconvenient anc;! inaccurate calendar was in- 
herited by the Jews and Persians, and is still used by the 
oriental Jews and the Mohammedans. As in Egypt (Fig. 2>z)^ 
the years themselves were not numbered, but each year was 
named after some important event occurring in the course 
of the year. 

1 The only exceptions were later the vowels and some surviving pictorial 
signs which served as graphic hints, like the Egyptian determinatives (Fig. 30). 
On the story of how this writing was deciphered, see Section 25. 



112 Ancient Times 

151. Sume- The Sumerian system of numerals was not based on tens, 
and weights^ but had the unit sixty as a basis. A large number was given 

as so many sixties, just as we employ a score (fourscore, five- 
score). From this unit of sixty has descended our division of 
the circle (six sixties) and of the hour and minute. The leading 
unit of weight which they used was a mi7ia, divided into sixty 
shekels. The mina had the weight of our pound, and traffic 
with the East at last brought this measure of weight to us, 
though under another name. 

152. Nippur Almost in the center of the Plain of Shinar (see map, p. 106) 
cerTter^-Tts^"^ rose a great tower (Fig. 104). It was of baked brick, for there 
temple-mount ^^g ^q stone in all Babylonia. This tower was the sacred 

or tower, the -' 

ancestor of mount of Enlil, the great Sumerian god of the air, at the 

our church . . . ^. .^. o \ i i i i i 

steeple ancient town of Nippur (l^ig. 84), a holy place greatly revered 

among all the Sumerian communities. This temple-mount was 
in shape a building tapering upward somewhat like a pyramid. 
Around the outside of the square towerlike building was a broad 
steep footway, which rose as it turned, till it reached the top 
(see tailpiece, p. 170). The Sumerians erected this building at 
Nippur, probably in the effort to give their god a home on 
a mountain top such as he had once occupied, before they left 
their mountain home to dwell on the Babylonian plain (see 
§ 145). Other towns also adopted the idea, and the temple 
tower at Babylon in later ages gave rise to the tale of the 
Tower of Babel (or Babylon), as preserved by the Hebrews. 
This Babylonian temple tower is the ancestor of our church 
steeple (Fig. 272). 
X53. The low But the tower was not itself the temple of the god, although 
ing bedside he had a shrine at the top. Alongside the tower there was a 
tower'"^^^ small, low temple building serving as the temple proper. Such 
sanctuaries have all perished in Babylonia, but enough remains 
to show the simple character of this lower building (Fig. 206). 
Approaching from the outside the visitor saw only bare walls 
of sun-dried brick. These inclosed a court, behind which 
was the sacred chamber. Indeed, it is clear that this lower 



Western Asia : Babylonia 1 1 3 

dwelling of the god was simply a dwelling house like those . 
of the townsmen (Fig. 82). 

Around the temple and its mount were grouped the store- 154. The 
houses and business offices of the temple, while a massive wall d^Sre-'^th- 
forming an inclosure surrounded and protected the whole ^"|fheir*^ 
(Fig. 84). Here ruled a wealthy priesthood. Assisted by a ruler 
group of scribes (Fig. loi), they rented and cared for the 
temple lands and property. The king or ruler of the town at 
their head was really also a priest, called a '' patesi" (pronounced 
pa-tay'see). His temple duties kept him about as busy as did 
the task of ruling the community outside of the temple walls. 

At this sanctuary under the shadow of the temple-mount 155. Sume- 
the peasant brought in his offering, a goat and a jar of water and worship 
containing a few green palm branches intended to symbolize 
the vegetable life of the land, which the god maintained by the 
annual rise of the river. The jar with the green palm branches 
in it later became '' the tree of life," a symbol often depicted 
on the monuments of the land (Fig. 102). These gifts the 
worshiper laid before the gods of earth, of air, of sky, or 
sea, praying that there might be plentiful waters and gener- 
ous harvests, but praying also for deliverance from the de- 
stroying flood which the god had once sent to overwhelm 
the land. Of this catastrophe the peasant's fathers had told 
him, and the tradition of this flood finally passed over to 
the Hebrews. 

In one important matter of religion the Sumerians were very 156. Sume- 
different from the Egyptians. The dead were buried in the "ndbeliS 
town, under the court of a house or the floor of a room about the 

hereafter 

(Fig. 81), often without any tomb or coffin or much equip- 
ment for the life beyond the grave. Of the next world they 
had only vague and somber impressions, as a forbidding place 
of darkness and dust beneath the earth, to which all men, 
both good and bad, descended. Great cemeteries and elaborate 
tomb equipment, such as those which told us so much of early 
Egypt, do not help us here in Babylonia. 



114 



Ancient Times 



157. Sume- 
rian house 
and town 



Around the temple inclosure extended the houses of the citi- 
zens — bare rectangular structures of sun-dried brick (Fig. 82), 
each with a court on the north side, and on the south side of 
the court a main chamber from which the other rooms were 





Fig. 81. An Early Babylonian Burial. (After Scheil) 

Two large pottery jars laid with their open ends together served as a 
coffin. Sometimes the body lay on the bottom of a rectangular grave 
lined with sun-dried brick, forming a rough vault. The usual burial was 
not in a cemetery but was in the house undes the floor of the court or 
some room. Only one small cemetery, containing some thirty burials, 
has as yet been found in Babylonia. Little, if any, equipment for the 
hereafter was placed with the body, although some burials were sup- 
plied with a few jars of pottery or copper and ornaments of silver, 
gold, copper, or mother-of-pearl, with an occasional weapon or tool 

entered. At first only a few hundred feet across, the town 
slowly spread out, although it always remained of very limited 
extent.^ Such a towm usually stood upon an artificial mound 
(Fig. 83), which it is important for us to examine. 

1 There were no really large cities in Babylonia until the Chaldean Empire 
(606-538 B.C., Section 20). 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



115 



158. The 
formation of 
ancient city 
mounds 




The ordinary building material of the entire ancient world 
was sun-baked brick. The houses of the common people in 
the Orient even at the present day are still built of such brick. 
The walls of such houses in course of time are slowly eaten 
away by the rains, till after a heavy rain an old house some- 
times falls down. When this happens at the present day the 
rubbish is leveled off and the house is rebuilt on top of it. 
This modern practice has been going on for thousands of 
years. It was this 
kind of a house 
whose fall Jesus 
had in mind in his 
parable (Matt, vii, 
27). As this proc- 
ess went on for 
many centuries it 
produced a high 
mound of rubbish, 
on which the town 
stood. 

Many a surviv- 
ing oriental town 
still stands on such 
an ancient mound. 
These mounds are 
to be found in all 
the ancient lands, like the mound of Troy (Fig. 1 49), that 
of Jericho in Palestine (Fig. 124), or Elephantine in Egypt 
(Fig. 211). Babylonia is to-day full of such great mounds 
long since forsaken and deserted, and Fig. 83 shows us how 
they look at the present day. 

The clay tablets (Fig. 79) containing the household records, 160. Con 
letters, bills, receipts, notes, accounts, etc., which were in the 
houses when they fell, were often covered by the falling walls, 
and they still lie in the mound. In the temples and public 



Fig. 82. Restoration of an Early 
Babylonian House. (After Koldewey) 

The towns of the early Babylonians were small 
and were chiefly made up of such sun-baked- 
brick houses as these. Their simple adornment 
consisted only of vertical panels and a stepped 
(crenelated) edge at the top of the wall. The 
doors were crowned by arches in contrast with 
those of the Egyptians, who knew the arch but 
preferred a horizontal line above all doorways 



159. Distri- 
bution of 
such early 
mounds 
to-day 



tents pre- 
served in 
such ancient 
mounds 



Il6 Ancient Times 

buildings the documents covered up were often important gov- 
ernment records ; while in the dwelling or offices of the ruler 
they were often narratives of wars and conquests. Some- 
times the ruler placed accounts of his buildings, his victo- 
ries, and other great deeds deep in the foundations of his 
buildings in order that later rulers might find them. Besides 




Fig. 83. Mound covering a Portion of the Ancient Baby- 
lonian City of Nippur 

The bare ground in front of us now showing a scanty growth of desert 
shrubs once formed a court, or open square, for pubHc business, unload- 
ing caravans, etc. The great mound beyond contains the chief temple 
buildings of Nippur, occupying the south corner of the temple inclosure. 
Its highest portion covers the temple mount (§ 152), of which only the 
lower parts still survive under the mound. In the buildings covered by 
these mounds lived the scribes (clerks) and officials who carried on the 
temple and government business of this town nearly five thousand years 
^go (§ 154)- See also Fig. 84 for a view from the top of the temple- 
mount. (By courtesy of the University Museum, Philadelphia) 

all these written records, many articles of household use or 
sculptured works of art still lie hidden in such mounds. Here 
too lie the gaunt and somber remains of the early Babylonian 
buildings themselves (Fig. 84). But these town buildings have 
fallen into such ruin that we cannot make them tell us a story 
such as we found in Egypt. Nevertheless, a city mound is a 
rich storehouse of ancient Babylonian civilization, the story of 
which we are now to follow\ 




Fig. 84. Excavation of the Ruins of Ancient Nippur 

These ruins were excavated by the University of Pennsylvania Expedi- 
tion in three campaigns between 1889 and 1900. This view shows the 
work of excavation going on. The earth (once sun-dried brick) is taken 
out in baskets and carried away by a long line of native laborers, who 
empty their baskets at the far end of an ever-growing bank of exca- 
vated earth. The ruinous buildings, once entirely covered (Fig. 83), 
are slowly exposed, and among them, often clay tablets or objects of 
pottery, stone, or metal. Thus are recovered the records and antiquities 
of ancient Babylonia (§ 161). They lie at different levels, the oldest 
things nearer the bottom and the later ones higher up. This is a 
view seen from the top of the highest mound in Fig. 83. Beyond the 
laborers the view to the horizon gives a good idea of the flat Babylonian 
plain. Only two generations ago the monuments and records of Baby- 
lonia and Assyria preserved in Europe could all be contained in a 
show case only a few feet square. Since 1840, however, archaeological 
excavation, as we call such digging, has recovered great quantities of 
antiquities and records. Such work is now slowly recovering for us the 
story of the ancient world. (Drawn from a photograph furnished by 
courtesy of the University Museum, Philadelphia) 



117 



Ii8 



Ancient Times 



i6i. Early 
Sumerian art ; 
sculpture, 
seal-cutting, 
metal work 



At the bottom of these mounds, reaching back to 3000 B.C., 
lie the works of the Sumerian sculptor in stone. They were in 

the beginning very rough 
and crude. The demand 
for personal seals cut in 
stone (Fig. 86) soon de- 
veloped a beautiful art 
of engraving tiny figures 
on a hard stone surface 
(Fig. 106, A). We call 
a craftsman who could 
do such work a lapidary. 
The early Sumerian lapi- 
daries soon became the 
finest craftsmen of the 
kind in the ancient ori- 
ental world, and their 
work has had an influ- 
ence on our own deco- 
rative art which has not 
yet disappeared (see de- 
scription, Fig. 85). The 
Sumerian craftsmen also 
did skillful work in metal, 
sometimes beautifully dec- 
orated (Fig. 85). 




Fig. ZS' Silver Vase of a Sume- 
rian City-King 



This vase, the finest piece of metal work 
from early Babylonia, is adorned with 
two broad bands of engraving extending 
entirely around it. They furnish an ex- 
cellent example of early Sumerian decorative art. In the broader band 
we see a lion-headed eagle clutching the backs of two lions, which in 
their turn are biting two ibexes. This balanced arrangement of animal 
figures in violent action was a discovery of Sumerian art about 3000 B.C. 
The eagle and the lions here form the symbol, or arms, of the Sume- 
rian city-kingdom of Lagash. Such symbols made up of balanced 
pairs of animal figures passed over to Europe, where they are still used 
in decorative art and in the heraldic symbols, or arms, of the kings 
and nations. The eagle still appears in the arms of Russia, Austria, 
Prussia, and other European nations, and finally reached us as our 
"American" eagle, really the eagle of Lagash, five thousand years ago 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



119 



In all these monuments and the writings on clay tablets 
we find revealed to us the life which once filled the streets 
of the ancient Babylonian towns now 
sleeping under the silent mounds. We 
see a class of free landholding citizens 
in the town, working their lands with 
numerous slaves and trading with cara- 
vans and small boats up and down the 
river. Over these free, middle-class folk 
were the officials and priests, the aristo- 
crats of the town. Such a community, 
owning the lands for a few miles round 
about the town, formed the political 
unit, or state, which we call a city- 
kingdom. We may therefore call the 
first three centuries after about 3050 B.C. 
the Age of the Sumerian City-Kingdoms. 
The leading Sumerian city-kingdoms 
formed a group in the South, occupying 
the land of Sumer (see map, p. 106). 
These towns are still marked for us by 
a straggling line of mounds distributed 
along the Euphrates. In spite of oppres- 
sive and dishonest taxation, such a com- 
munity owed much to its ruler, or patesi 
(§ 154). He was useful in a number of 
matters, but chiefly in two ways : in war 
and in irrigation. The irrigation canals 




162. Early 
Sumerian 
society and 
state ; the 
Age of the 
City-King- 
doms (about 
3050-2750 

B.C.) 



163. The Su 

merian city- 
kingdoms 
and their 
patesis 



Fig. 86. An Early 

Sumerian Cylinder 

Seal 



Instead of signing his 
7ianie to a clay-tablet 

document, the early Sumerian rolled over the soft clay a litde stone 
roller, or cylinder, engraved with beautiful pictures (Figs. 90, 91, 
and 106, A) and sometimes also bearing the owner's name (Fig. 91). 
The impression left by the roller in the soft clay served as a sig- 
nature. They have been found in great numbers in the ruins of 
Babylonia. By a study of these works the growth and decline of Baby- 
lonian art may be traced for twenty-five hundred years, from about 
3000 B.C. to about 500 B.C. The picture shows end view and side view 



I20 



Ancient Times 



and dikes required constant repairs. The planting and harvest- 
ing of the fields would have stopped and the whole community 
would have starved if the ruler had ceased his constant over- 
sight of the dikes and canals and the water supply had stopped. 




Fig. 87. A Sumerian Citv-King leading a Phalanx of his 
Troops (about 2900 b.c.) 

The king himself, whose face is "broken off from the stone, marches at 
the right, heading his troops, who follow in a compact group. This is 
the earliest example of grouping men together in a mass, forming a sin- 
gle fighting unit, called a phalanx. This must have required a long drill 
and discipline, after many centuries of loose, irregular, scattered fight- 
ing (Fig. 88). This was the first chapter in the long history of the art 
of war, and it took place in Asia. Such discipline was unknown at this 
time in Egypt. These Sumerian troops have their spears set for the. 
charge, but they carry no bows. Tall shields cover their entire bodies, 
and they wear close-fitting helmets, probably of leather. They are 
marching over dead bodies (symbolical of the overthrow of the enemy). 
The scene is carved in stone and is a good example of the rude Sume- 
rian sculpture in Babylonia in the days of the Great Pyramid and the 
remarkable portrait sculpture of Egypt (contrast with Figs. 52 and 53) 

164. The As to war, we can watch more than one of these city rulers 

tlTe Sumerian niarching out at the head of troops heavily armed with shield 

city-kingdoms ^^^ spear (but without the bow) and marshaled in massive 

phalanx (Fig. 87). We found on the Nile the earliest highly 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



121 



developed arts of peace ; we find here among the Sumeriansi 
the earliest Highly developed art of war in the history of man. \ 
When the townspeople heard that a neighboring city-kingdom \ 
was trying to take possession of a strip of their land, they 
were glad to follow the patesi's leadership in order to drive 
out the invaders. As such occurrences were common, the 



ftTOrH;'l%^^*^t:^-"^ ^ (iuiW*HH', I \ 




Fig. 88, Semitic Bowmen of Early Babylonia fighting in 
Open Order 

The nomads had no organization and no discipline ; each man leaped 
about in the fray as he pleased, and the fight was a loose group of 
single combats between two antagonists. This loose rough-and-tumble 
fighting was the earliest method of warfare, before men learned to train 
and drill themselves to fight in groups or masses. The Sumerians were 
the earliest men who took this step (Fig. 87). The disciplined Sume- 
rian townsmen were therefore long superior to these disorganized 
nomads of the desert along the Fertile Crescent 



early history of Sumer for some three centuries (about 3050 
to 2750 B.C.) was largely made up of the ever-changing 
fortunes of these city-kingdoms in war. 

But while the city-kingdoms of Sumer were thus often fight- 165. Earliest 
ing among themselves, they were also called upon to meet an sumerians 
enemy from the outside. The Semitic nomads of the desert ai^d Semites 
(§ 135) early began to settle north of Sumer. This region 
called Akkad (see map, p. 106), where the Two Rivers are 



122 



Ancient Times 



closest together, was on the main road from the Two Rivers to 
the eastern mountains, and the leading Semitic tribe there bore 
the name Akkadians. These desert wanderers had never 
learned discipline and drill in war like the Sumerians. They 
depended on their skill as archers, and they gave battle there- 
fore at a distance. Or if they came to close quarters, they 
fought single-handed, in open order (Fig. 88). Their thin and 
open line was evidently at first no match for the heavy phalanx 
of the Sumerians. Thus two hostile races faced each other on 
the Plain of Shinar : in the • North the half-settled Semitic 
nomads of Akkad, and in the South the one-time mountaineers 
of Sumer. The long struggle between them was only one of 
the many struggles between nomad and mountaineer along the 
Fertile Crescent (§ 133). 

Section i 5 . The First Semitic Triumph : 
THE Age of Sargon 



166. The 

first Semitic 
triumph ; 
Sargon of 
Akkad and 
his line 
(2750-2550 
B.C.) 



About 2750, that is, about the middle of the twenty-eighth 
century B.C., there arose in Akkad a Semitic chieftain named 
Sargon. So skillful in war was he, that he succeeded in scatter- 
ing the compact Sumerian spearmen, and making himself lord 
of all the Plain of Shinar. The old Sumerian city-kings were de- 
feated and the Sumerian towns down to the mouths of the Two 
Rivers submitted to him. He led his swift Akkadian archers 
from the eastern mountains of Elam westward up the Euphrates 
to the shores of the Mediterranean. There, as we remember, 
the Pharaoh's galleys (Fig. 41) were already moored in the 
harbors of the Phoenician cities. Some day chance may dis- 
close to us the messages, written on clay tablets, which now 
probably passed between the lord of the Euphrates and the 
lord of the Nile living in the splendors of his pyramid-city at 
Gizeh. Sargon was the first great leader in the history of the 
Semitic race, and he was the first ruler to build up a great 
nation in Western Asia, reaching from Elam (Fig. 89, and 



Western Asia: Babylonia 123 

map, p. 100) to the Mediterranean and far up the Two 
Rivers northward. His splendid conquests made an impres- 
sion upon the Tigris-Euphrates world which never faded, and 
he left them to his sons, one of whom, Naram-Sin, even 
extended them. 

Sargon's conquests forced his nomad tribesmen (the Akka- 167. The 
dians) to make a complete change in their manner of life.. The Akkadians 
once wandering shepherds were obliged to drop their unsettled ^^^^P^ . 
life and to take up fixed abodes. We may best picture the change civilization 
if we say that they forsook their tents (headpiece, p. 100) and 
built houses of sun-dried brick (Fig. 82), which could not be 
picked up every morning and set up somewhere else at night. 
At first they did not even know how to write, and they had no 
industries (§ 136). Some of them now learned to write their 
Semitic tongue by using the Sumerian wedge-form signs for^, 
the purpose. Then it was, therefore, that a Semitic language' 
began to be written for the first time. These former nomad^ 
had never before attempted to manage the affairs of settled 
communities, — such business as we call government admin- 
istration. All this too they were now obliged to learn from 
the Sumerians. The Semitic Akkadians therefore adopted the 
Sumerian calendar, weights and measures, system of numerals 
and business methods. With the arts of peace the Akkadians 
also gained those of war. They learned to make helmets of 
leather and copper weighing over two pounds. These are the 
earliest-known examples of the use of metal as a protection in 
war. From such beginnings as these were to come the steel-clad 
battleships and gun turrets of modern times. 

Among other things the Akkadians learned also the art of 168. The 
sculpture, but they soon far surpassed their Sumerian teachers, f^ of the"Age 
The relief of Naram-Sin (Fig. 89) belongs among the real ofSargon 
triumphs of art in the early world — ^especially interesting as 
the first great work of art produced by the Semitic race. The 
beautiful Sumerian art of seal-cutting, the Akkadians now carried 
to a wonderful degree of perfection (Figs. 90, 91, and 106, A). 




Fig. 89. A King of Akkad storming a Fortress — the 
Earliest Great Semitic Work of Art (about 2700 b.c.) 

King Naram-Sin of Akkad (probably one of the sons of Sargon I, § 166) 
has pursued the enemy into a mountain stronghold in Elam. His heroic 
figure towers above his pygmy enemies, each one of whom has fixed his 
eyes on the conqueror, awaiting his signal of mercy. The sculptor, with 
fine insight, has depicted the dramatic instant when the king lowers his 
weapon as the sign that he grants the conquered their lives. Compare 
the superiority of this Semitic sculpture of Akkad over the Sicynerian 
art of two centuries earlier (Fig. 87) 
124 



Western Asia: Babylonia 



125 



Thus the life of the desert Semite mingled with that of the 169. Com- 
non-Semitic mountaineer on the Babylonian plain, much as suSfeda^r^ 
Norman and English mingled in England. On the streets and ^"^ ^^^^' 

^ <=> o dians 

in the market places of the Euphrates towns, where once the (Semites) 
bare feet, clean-shaven heads, and beardless faces of the Sume- 
rian townsmen were the only ones to be seen, there was now a 




Fig. 90. A Semitic Prince and his Sumerian Secretary 
(Twenty-seventh Century b.c.) 

The third figure (wearing a cap) is that of the prince, Ubil-Ishtar, who 
is brother of the king. He is a Semite, as his beard shows. Three of his 
four attendants are also Semites, with beards and long hair; but one of 
them (just behind the prince) is beardless and shaven-headed (§ 169). 
He is the noble's secretary, for being a Sumerian he is skilled in writing. 
His name " Kalki " we learn from the inscription in the corner, which 
reads, " Ubil-Ishtar, brother of the king ; Kalki, the scribe, thy servant." 
This inscription is in the Semitic (Akkadian) tongue of the time and 
illustrates how the Semites have learned the Sumerian signs for writing 
(§ 167). The scene is engraved on Kalki's personal seal (Fig. 86), and 
the above drawing shows the impression on the soft clay when the seal 
was rolled over it. It is a fine example of the Babylonian art of seal- 
cutting in hard stone (§ 168). The original is in the British Museum 

plentiful sprinkling of sandaled feet, of dark beards, and heavy 
black locks hanging down over the shoulders of the swarthy 
Semites of Akkad (Fig. 90). The shaven Sumerian served 
in the army with shield and lance (Fig. 87) along with his 
bearded Semitic lord carrying only the bow (Fig. 88). The 
Semitic noble could not do without the deft Sumerian clerk, 
for we see the king's brother v\^ith his Semitic attendants, fol- 
lowed also by his shaven-headed Sumerian secretary (Fig. 90). 



126 Ancient Times 

Section i6. Union of Sumerians and Semites : the 
Kings of Sumer and Akkad 

170. The When at last the Semites of Akkad were enfeebled by the 
SunS-and town life which they had adopted, the line of Sargon declined. 
Akkad (from ^ result the Sumerian cities of the South were able to recover 

the twenty- 
fifth to the control of the country not long after 21:00 B.C. Headed by the 

twenty-third . . , ^^ \ r , i i o ... • j , 

century B.C.) ancient city ot Ur, three 01 the old Sumenan cities gained the 
leadership one after another. But the Semites of Akkad were 
henceforth recognized as part of the unified nation on the 
ancient Plain of Shinar, which now for the first time gained a 
national name. It was called " Sumer and Akkad." The kings 
of this age, who called themselves " Kings of Sumer and 
Akkad," were both Sumerians and Semites. They have left us 
no great buildings or imposing monuments, but the new United 
States of Sumer and Akkad prospered greatly and survived for 
over three centuries. For the first time literature flourished. 

171. Thought In simple stories these men of the Tigris- Euphrates world 
under the now began to answer those natural questions regarding life 



silnS- and ^^^ death, which always rose in the minds of early men. They 
finally told of the wonderful adventures of the shepherd Etana, 



Sumer and 
Akkad: the 
source of 

Hfe ; the when his flocks were stricken with unfruitfulness, and no more 

ana s oiy iaj^]3s were born. Etana then mounted on the back of an eagle 

(Fig. 91) and rose to the skies in search of the herb in which 

was the source of life. But as he neared his goal he was hurled 

to the earth again. This is the earliest tale of flying by man. 

172. Death The Strange mystery of death led to the story of the fisher- 

Ufer^he^^ i^^i^ Adapa. When the South-wind goddess overturned his 

Adapa story boat, Adapa flew into a rage and broke her wing. Thereupon 

he was summoned to the throne of the Sky-god, whose wrath 

was at length appeased so that he offered to Adapa the bread 

and water of life. This would have made him immortal and 

destroyed death. But suspicious and forewarned of danger, the 

unhappy Adapa refused the food and thus lost both for himself 

and for mankind the treasure of immortal life. 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



127 



In the same way they told how the gigantic hero Gilgamesh, 173. immor- 

after many mighty deeds and strange adventures (Fig. 106,^), Gilgamesh 

failed to 2:ain immortal life. Among all these heroes, indeed, there ^}^yy '■> *^^ 

^ . . deluge story 

was but one who was granted endless life. Of him there was 
a strange tale, telling how, together with his wife, he survived 




Fig. 91. The Flight of Etana to the Skies 

At the right Etana sits on the back of the flying eagle (§ 171), with his 
arm around the bird's neck. Above him is the moon, while below, two 
dogs look up after him, barking. At the left approaches a goatherd 
driving three goats ; before them walks a man with an object shaped 
like an umbrella. All, including the goats, are looking up in amaze- 
ment at the flight of Etana. Over the goatherd a potter is making jars, 
and at the right of his jars a squatting baker is making round loaves. 
The scene is carved on a cylinder seal (Fig. 86), and our drawing shows 
the impression on the soft clay when the seal is rolled over it. It is a 
fine specimen of the Babylonian lapidary's skill 



the great deluge (§ 155) in a large ship. Then the gods 
carried them both away to blessedness. But not even the 
kifigs of Sumer and Akkad were supposed to enter a blessed 
hereafter, much less the common people. Many of these stories 
of creation and flood were afterward known to the Hebrews. 

Mingled with touches from the life of both Sumerian and 
Semite, these tales now circulated in both the Semitic and 



128 



Ancient Times 



174. Decline 
of the 
Sumerian 
language ; 
its survival 
as a sacred 
tongue 



Sumerian languages. It was the old Sumerian tongue, however, 
which was regarded as the more sacred. It later continued in 
use as a kind of sacred language, like Latin in the Roman 
Catholic Church. The old Sumerian towns were now rapidly 
declining (twenty-third century B.C.), but religious stories were 
written in Sumerian, centuries after it was no longer spoken. 



Section 17. The Second Semitic Triumph: the 
Age of Hammurapi and After 



175. Return 
of Semitic 
supremacy ; 
rise of 
Babylon 



176. Rise of 
Hammurapi 
and suprem- 
acy of 
Babylon 



177. Hammu- 
rapi, the 
organizer 



As the " Kings of Sumer and Akkad " slowly weakened, a 
new tribe of Semites began descending the Euphrates, just as 
the men of Akkad had done under Sargon (§ 166). These 
newcomers were the Semitic Amorites of Syria by the Mediter- 
ranean (§ 141). About a generation before 2200 B.C. this new 
tribe of western Semites seized the little town of Babylon, which 
was at that time still an obscure village on the Euphrates. The 
Amorite kings of Babylon at once began to fight their way 
toward the leadership of Sumer and Akkad. 

After a century of such warfare there came to the throne 
as the sixth in the Amorite line of kings at Babylon one 
Hammurapi, who was flourishing by 2100 B.C. In the now 
feeble old Sumerian cities of the South, Hammurapi found the 
warlike Elamites who had come in from Elam in the eastern 
mountains. They fought him for over thirty years before he 
succeeded in driving them out and capturing the Sumerian 
towns. Victorious at last, Hammurapi then made his city of 
Babylon for the first time supreme throughout the land. It was 
therefore not until after 2100 B.C. that Babylon finally gained 
such a position of power and influence that we may call the 
land " Babylonia." 

Hammurapi survived his triumph twelve years, and in those 
years of peace, as he had done in war, he proved himself the 
ablest of his line. He was the second great Semitic ruler, as 
Sargon had been the first. Only a few generations earlier his 



Western Asia : Babylonia 129 

ancestors, like those of Sargon, had been drifting about the 
desert, without any organization. He still betrayed in his 
shaven upper lip, a desert custom, the evidence of his desert 
ancestry (Fig. 93). But he now put forth his powerful hand 
upon the teeming life of the Babylonian towns, and with a 
touch he brought in order and system such as Babylonia had 
never seen before. Two chief sources of information have sur- 
vived over four thousand years to reveal to us the deeds and 
the character of this great king : these are a group of fifty-five 
of his letters, and the splendid monument bearing his laws. 

Hammurapi's letters afford us for the first time in history a 178. Hammu- 
glimpse into the busy life of a powerful oriental ruler in Asia, [hei/dicta-^^ 
They disclose him to us sitting in the executive office of his p^Ji^radon 
palace at Babylon with his secretary at his side. In short, clear 
sentences the king begins dictating his brief letters, conveying 
his commands to the local governors of the old Sumerian cities 
which he now rules. The secretary draws a reed stylus (Fig. loi) 
from a leathern holder at his girdle, and quickly covers the 
small clay tablet (Fig. 92) with its lines of wedge groups. 
The writer then sprinkles over the soft wet tablet a handful 
of dry powdered clay. This is to prevent the clay envelope, 
which he now deftly wraps about the letter, from adhering 
to the written surface. On this soft clay envelope he writes 
the address and sends the letter out to be put into the furnace 
and baked. 

Messengers constantly hand him similarly closed letters. 179. Hammu 
This secretary of Hammurapi is a trusted confidential clerk. nXigation 
He therefore breaks to pieces the hard clay envelopes in the 
king's presence and reads aloud to him letters from his officials 
all over the kingdom. The king quickly dictates his replies. 
The flood has obstructed the Euphrates between Ur and 
Larsa, and of course a long string of boats have been tied up 
and are waiting. The king's reply orders the governor of 
Larsa to clear the channel at the earliest moment and make it 
navigable again. 



130 Ancient Times 

180. Hammu- The king is much interested in his vast flocks of sheep, as 
feasts an/the i^ the nomad instinct had not altogether vanished from the 
calendar blood of his line. He orders the officials to appear in Babylon 

to celebrate the spring sheep-shearing as if it were a great 
feast. The calendar has slipped forward a whole month in 
advance of the proper season (§ 150), and the king sends out 
a circular letter to all the governors, saying, " Since the year 
hath a deficiency, let the month which is now beginning be 
registered as a second (month of) Elul." 

181. Hammu- But he wanis the governor that all taxes otherwise falling 

rapi's letters : . , . , . i i r i i i • 

delinquents duc Within the iiext month are not to be deterred by this 
insertion. Delinquent tax gatherers are firmly reminded of 
their obligations and called upon to settle without delay. 
Prompt punishment of an official guilty of bribery is author- 
ized, and we can see the king's face darken as he dictates the 
order for the arrest of three officials of the palace gate who 
have fallen under his displeasure. More than once the gov- 
ernor of Larsa is sharply reminded of the king's orders and 
bidden to see that they are carried out at once. 

182. Hammu- Many a petitioner who has not been able to secure justice 
Justice an?^ before the board of judges in his home city is led in before 
religion ^^^ king, confident of just treatment; and he is^Bot disap- 
pointed (Fig. 92). The chief of the temple bakers find^v^hat 
royal orders to look after a religious feast at Ur will call hiflK, 
away from the capital city just at the time when he has an 
important lawsuit coming on. He easily obtains an order from 
the king postponing the lawsuit. The king's interest in the 
religious feast is here as much concerned as his sense of 
justice, for many of the letters which he dictates have to 
do with temple property and temple administration, in which 
he constantly shows his interest. 

183. The With his eye thus upon every corner of the land, alert, 
Hammurapi vigorous, and full of decision, the great king finally saw how 

necessary it was to bring into uniformity all the various and 
sometimes conflicting lav^^s and business customs of the land. 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



131 



He therefore collected all the older written laws and usages 
of business and social life, and arranged them systematically. 
He improved them or added 



new laws where his own judg- 
ment deemed wise, and he 
then combined them into a 
great code or body of laws. 
It was written, not in Sume- 
rian, as some of the old laws 
were, but in the Semitic 
speech of the Akkadians and 
Amorites. He then had it 
engraved upon a splendid 
shaft of stone. At the top 
was a sculptured scene in 
which the king was shown 
receiving the law from the 
Sun-god (Fig. 93). The new 
code was then set up in the 
temple of the great god Mar- 
duk in Babylon. This shaft 
has survived to our day, the 
oldest preserved code of an- 
cient law. Fragments of other 
copies on clay tablets, the cop- 
ies used by the local courts, 
have also been found. 

Hammurapi's code insists 
on justice to the widow, the 
orphan, and the poor; but it 
also allows many of the old 
and naive ideas of justice to 
stand. Especially prominent is 
the principle that the punish- 
ment for an injury should 




Fig. 92. A Letter written 
BY Hammurapi, King of Baby- 
lonia (about 2100 B.C.) 

One of the fifty-five clay-tablet let- 
ters of this king (§ 178) which have 
survived four thousand years. The 
writing, done while the clay was still 
soft, shows clear signs of the speed 
with which the writer, Hammurapi's 
secretary, took down the king's die- ^?4- Spirit of 
,/ _, ^, , , , , Hammurapi's 

tation (§ 178). The tablet has been code; posi- 

baked. It was also inclosed in a tion of woman 
baked-clay envelope bearing the ad- 
dress, but this has been broken off 
and thrown away (§ 179). This 
letter orders a local governor to 
hear the appeal of an official who 
thinks himself unjustly defeated in 
law (§ 182) 



32 



Ancient Times 



require the infliction of the same injury on the culprit — the 
principle of '' an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Injus- 
tice often resulted. For exam- 
ple, when a house fell (§ 158) 
and killed the son of the 
householder, the guilty builder 
must also suffer the loss of his 
son, and the innocent son was 
therefore condemned to die. 
Marriage was already a relation 
requiring legal agreements be- 
tween the man and his wife, and 
these are carefully regulated in 
Hammurapi's code. Indeed the 
position of women in this early 
Babylonian world, as in Egypt, 
was a high one. Women en- 
gaged in business on their 
own account, and even became 



* A shaft of stone (diorite) nearly 
8 feet high, on which the laws are 
engraved, extending entirely around 
the shaft and occupying over thirty- 
six hundred lines. Above is a fine 
relief showing King Hammurapi 
standing at the left, receiving the 
laws from the Sun-god seated at the 
right. Hammurapi's shaven upper 
lip proclaiming him a man of the 
Syrian desert (§ 177) is here in the 
shadow and cannot be seen. The 
flames rising from the god's shoul- 
ders indicate who he is. The flames 
on the left shoulder are commonly 
shown in the current textbooks as 
part of a staff in the god's left hand. 
This is an error. This scene is an 
impressive work of Semitic art, six 
hundred years later than Fig. 89. 





Fig. 93. The Laws of Ham- 
murapi, THE Oldest Surviv- 
ing Code of Laws (2100 b.c.)* 



Western Asia: Babylonia 133 

professional scribes. They must have attended such a school 
as that described below (Fig. 95). 

Thus regulated, the busy Babylonian communities prospered 185. indus- 
as never before. Their products were chiefly agricultural, Hammurapi's 
especially grain and dates ; but they had also flocks and herds, *'"^^ 
leather and wool. The weaving of wool was a great in- 
dustry, for woolen clothing was commonly worn in Western 
Asia. Copper had been displaced by bronze (§ 146), and 
one document refers to iron, but this metal was still much 
too rare to play any part in industry. Iron for common 
use was still a thousand years in the future in Hammurapi's 
time (§§360, 392). 

A standing army kept the frontiers safe and quiet, and the 186. Baby- 
slow donkey caravans of the Babylonian merchants, plodding jjerce in"^' 
from town to town, were able to penetrate far into the sur- Hammurapi's 

^ time 

rounding communities. They were so common on the upper 
Euphrates (map, p. 100) that a town there was called Haran 
(or Kharan) from the Babylonian word kharanu, meaning 
''journey." Many a courtyard was piled high with bales, each 
bearing a clay seal with the impression of the merchant's 
name (cf. Fig. 91). These clay seals, broken away as the 
bales were opened, to-day lie in the rubbish of the Babylonian 
towns, where the modern excavator picks them up, still dis- 
playing on one side the merchant's name and on the other 
the impression of the cord which bound the bale. 

Such seals and the clay-tablet bills which accompanied the 187. Spread 
bales had to be read by many a local merchant in the towns writing ^^^"^"^ 
of Syria and beyond the passes of the northern mountains. *!?/'°"S^ , . 

■' ^ •' ^ Western Asia 

Thus Babylonian cuneiform writing slowly made its way 
through Western Asia, and the merchants of Syria began to 
write bills and letters of their own on clay tablets (see § 291 
and Fig. 126). Hammurapi's commercial influence was widely 
felt in the West. The memory of his name had not wholly died 
out in Syria-Palestine in Hebrew days over a thousand years 
after his death. 



134 Ancient Times 

i88. The While the Babylonian merchants were a powerful class and 

center^of ^ were even called the "rulers" in some communities, it was the 
business temples with their large possessions which were the center of 

business life. They loaned money like banks, dealt in mer- 
chandise, and controlled extensive lands. 

189. Money There was as yet no coined money, but lumps of silver 

of a given weight circulated so commonly that values were 
given in weight of silver. Thus a man could say that an 
ox was worth so many ounces of silver, only he would use 
"shekels" in place of ounces. Loans were common, though the 
rate of interest was high: twenty per cent a year, payable in 
monthly installments. Gold was also in sparing use, for it was 
fifteen times as valuable as silver. 

190. Babylo- These commercial interests were the leading influences in 
hi^the A^e^of Babylonian life, even in religion. The temples, as we have 
Hammurapi g^id^ had a large place in business life ; and religion never pro- 
claimed the rights of the poor and the humble, nor championed 
their cause against the rich and powerful. To be sure, the 
ritual of the temple contained some prayers which indicated 
a sense of sin and unworthiness. But the advantages of 
religion consisted in being able to obtain substantial benefits 
from the gods and to avoid their displeasure. 

191. Marduk The people still worshiped the old Sumerian gods, but the 

political leadership of Babylon had enabled the men of that 
city to put their Semitic god Marduk at the head of all the 
gods, and in the old mythical stories (§§ 1 71-173) they in- 
serted the name Marduk where once the ancient Sumerian god 
Enlil had played the leading part. At the same time the great 
Asiatic goddess of love, Ishtar, rose to be the leading goddess 
of Babylon. She was later to pass over to the Mediterranean 
to become the Aphrodite of the Greeks (§ 420). 

192. Babylo- Among the benefits granted by the gods was the ability to 
of reading foretell the future. This art we call divination, and the priest 
divination' °^ ^^^ practiced it was a diviner. The skilled diviner could inter- 
pret the mysterious signs on the liver of the sheep (Fig. 94) 



Western Asia : Babylonia 



135 




slain in sacrifice, and his anxious inquirers believed that he 

could thus reveal the unknown future. He could note the 

positions of the stars 

and the planets, and 

he could thus discern 

the decrees of the 

gods for the future. 

These practices later 

spread westward. We 

shall find the reading 

of the liver a common 

practice in Rome (Fig. 

234), and star-reading 

later developed, under 

the Chaldeans (§ 238), 

into the science of 

astrology, the mother 

of astronomy. It was 

taken up by the Greeks 

and has even survived 

into our own day. 

To train such men 
and to furnish clerks 
for business and gov- 
ernment, schools were 
necessary. These were 
usually in or connected 
with the temple. A 
schoolhouse of the time 
of Hammurapi has ac- 
tually been uncovered 
(Fig. 95), with the clay-tablet exercises of the boys and girls of 
four thousand years ago still lying on the floor. They show 
how the child began his long and difficult task of learning to 
understand and to write three or four hundred different signs. 



Fig. 94. Ancient Babylonian Divi- 
ner's Baked-Clay Model of Sheep's 
Liver (about 2100 b.c.) 

The surface of the model is marked with 
lines and holes, indicating the places where 
the diviner must look for the mysterious 
signs which disclosed the future. These 
signs were of course the highly varied 
natural shapes and markings to be observed 
in any sheep's liver. But the Babylonian 
believed that these things were signs placed 
on the liver by the god to whom the sheep 
had been given, when it was slain as a sac- 
rifice. The meaning of each part ot the 
liver is here written in cuneiform in the 
proper place. The whole forms a kind of 
map of the surface and shape of the liver 
with written explanations. Absurd as all 
this seems to us, the art of reading the 
future in this way was believed in by millions 
of people, and finally reached Europe 
(§ 793 and Fig. 234) 



193. Edu- 
cation : a 
Babylonian 
schoolhouse 



136 



Ancient Times 



194. Educa- 
tion : learn- 
ing to write 



The pupil's slate was a soft clay tablet, on which he could 
rub out his exercises at any time by smoothing off the surface 
with a ffet piece of wood or stone. With his reed stylus in his 
hand, he made long rows of single wedges in three positions, 
horizontal, vertical, and oblique (see § 148). When he could 




:d 




Fig. 95. An Ancient Babylonian Schoolhouse in the Days 
OF Hammurapi (about 2100 B.C.). (After Scheil) 

On the right is the ground plan of the schoolhouse, which was about 
55 feet square. The children went in at the door {A), across the end of 
the long room {B) where the doorkeeper sat and perhaps kept a clay- 
tablet tardy-list of the pupils who came late. Then the children entered 
a court {C) which was open to the sky, and we may suppose that they 
separated here, the big boys and girls going into their own rooms, 
while the little ones went into others. Somewhere in the schoolhouse, 
and probably in the court (6'), was a pile or box of soft clay, where a 
boy who had already filled his clay-tablet slate with wedge-marks (§ 194) 
could quickly make himself a new slate by flattening a ball of soft clay. 
On the left we look through one of the doors of this oldest schoolhouse 
in the world, as it appeared on the day when it was uncovered by the 
French in 1894. The native Arab workmen who uncovered it stand in 
the doorway. The walls of sun-dried brick are still 8 or 9 feet high 



make the single wedges neatly enough, the master set him at 
work on the wedge-groups forming the signs themselves. 
Lastly, he was able to undertake words and simple phrases, 
leading up to sentences and quotations from old documents. 
One of the tablets found in the schoolhouse contains a proverb 
which shows how highly the Babylonians valued the art of 



Western Asia: Babylonia 137 

writing. It reads : " He who shall excel in tablet-writing shall 
shine like the sun." Doubtless many a Babylonian lad was 
encouraged in the long and wearisome task of learning to write, 
by copying this enthusiastic sentiment. 

Of the higher life of Babylon in this age as expressed in 195. Scanty 
great works of art and architecture, very little has survived on art"fTom°^ 
the spot. Indeed, the city of Hammurapi has perished utterly. Hammurapi's 
Not a single building erected by him now stands. Enough re- tecture 
mains in other old Babylonian mounds to show us that Western 
Asia was still without the colonnades already so common on 
the Nile (Fig. 56). In these Babylonian buildings the arch 
for the first time assumed a prominent place on the front 
of a structure. As a result of its early prominence here, 
the arch traveled slowly westward into Europe (§787 and 
Fig. 248). The chief architectural creation of early Babylonia 
was the temple tower, which we have already seen (Fig. 104); 
but of the temples themselves no surviving example has 
been excavated.^ 

There seems to have been no painting in Hammurapi's time. 196. Sculp- 
The sculptured scene in which Hammurapi receives the law Hammurapi's 
from the Sun-god (Fig. 93) is a work displaying a certain fine '^"^^ 
dignity and impressiveness. But this scene shows us how 
Babylonian custom now muffled the human form in heavy 
woolen garments, so that the sculptor had little opportunity to 
depict the beauty of the human figure (contrast Fig. 89). 
Portraiture was scarcely able to distinguish one individual from 
another. The beautiful art of seal-cutting, the greatest art of 
the Babylonians, had noticeably declined since the wonderful 
works of Sargon's age (Fig. 106, A). Although it was commer- 
cially so successful, yet in art the great age of Hammurapi 
was already declining. 

1 The common restorations to be found in our current histories of art and 
architecture, showing us complete early Babylonian temples, rest entirely on 
imagination, and are pure guesswork. The temples of late Babylonia (Chaldean 
Empire, Section 20) have been excavated and restored by the German Expedition 
(Fig. 206). 



138 Ancient Times 

197. Earliest! The decline in art was perhaps a prophecy of what was to 
thr?JmTstic^ come, for the Babylonian nation which Hammurapi had so 
horse in 1 splendidly organized and started on its way did not survive 
(2100 B.C.) ; I his death. The mountaineers, whom Hammurapi had driven 
Hammurapi's lout of the Sumerian cities (§ 176), again descended upon the 
^^^^ \ Babylonian plain, as the Sumerians had done so long before. 

They probably brought with them a newcomer even more 
important than themselves ; for, as they began to appear more 
and more often on the streets of the Babylonian towns, they 
seem to have led with them a strange animal, for which the 
Babylonians had no name. They called it the " animal of the 
mountains." Thus about four thousand years ago the tamed 
horse appeared for the first time in a civilized community, 
and began to play that important part in war and industry 
which he has played ever since.^ In this continuation of the 
age-long struggle between nomad and mountaineer on the 
Babylonian plain, even the line of Hammurapi was swept 
away, and the horse-breeders of the highlands triumphed 
(twentieth century B.C.). Their rule was rude and almost 
barbaric, and their triumph marked the end of old Babylonian 
progress in civilization. Until its revival under the Chaldeans 
•: (Section 20) Babylonia relapsed into stagnation so complete 
that it was rarely interrupted. 

198. Sum- As we look back over this first chapter of early human 
retrospect progress along the Two Rivers, we see that it lasted about a 

thousand years, beginning a generation or two before 3000 B.C. 
The Sumerian mountaineers laid the foundations of civilization 
in Shinar and began a thousand-year struggle with the Semites 
of the desert. In spite of the ^mingling and union of the two 

1 These mountaineers (called by the Babylonians Kassites) who probably 
brought the horse into Babylonia did not domesticate him themselves. They 
received him in trade from the North or from Asia Minor, from tribes of the 
Indo-Europeans (§ 247), who had long before tamed or domesticated the animal. 
The chariot courses which show his presence in prehistoric western Europe 
(§ 39) were probably a little later than this. We recall the appearance of the 
horse in Egypt about 1700 B.C. (§ 107), some four hundred years later than in 
Babylonia. 



Western Asia : Babylonia 1 39 

races, the Semites triumphed twice under two great leaders, 
Sargon (2 7 5 o b. c.) and Hammurapi (2 1 00 b. c). The Sumerians 
then disappeared, and the language of Babylonia became Sem- 
itic. The reign of Hammurapi, in spite of some weakening in 
art, marks the highest point and the end of the thousand- 
year development — the conclusion of the first great chapter 
of history along the Two Rivers. The scene of the second 
chapter will carry us up the river valley, just as it did in our 
study of the Nile. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 13. Describe the Fertile Crescent. How can we sum- 
marize its history t Discuss its relation to the desert. Who were the 
inhabitants of the desert .? Describe their life. Into what lands did 
they shift at the west end of the Fertile Crescent.? at the east end? 
What rivers cross the east half of the Crescent? Describe the plain 
they have made. 

Section 14. Who were the early dwellers in the Plain of Shinar? 
Describe their life. Describe their writing materials and their writ- 
ing. Summarize their civilization. Describe their buildings and 
towns. What are such towns like to-day? What do we find in them? 
Were the Sumerians all united in one nation ? What progress had 
they made in war ? 

Section 15. What outsiders defeated the Sumerians? Who was 
the first great Semitic king ? What did the Akkadians learn from the 
Sumerians? What did the Akkadians accomplish in art? Describe 
the mingling of Akkadians and Sumerians. 

Section 16. What nation resulted from the mingling of Sume- 
rians and Akkadians ? How long did it last? Describe its literature. 
What became of the Sumerian language ? 

Section i 7. Who were the Amorites, and what city in the Plain 
of Shinar did they seize? Who was their greatest king? Describe 
his administration as seen in his letters. Tell about his achievements 
in adjusting the laws of Babylonia. Discuss Babylonian commerce. 
What did it carry to the peoples along the west of the Fertile Cres- 
cent? Describe Babylonian divination, education, architecture. What 
happened at Hammurapi's death ? How long had the first chapter 
of civilization on the Two Rivers lasted ? 




CHAPTER V 



THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS 



Section i8. Early Assyria and her Rivals 



199. The 

situation of 
Assur, the 
earliest 
capital of 
Assyria 



The second chapter of history along the Two Rivers carries us 
up-river from Babylonia to the northeast corner of the desert- 
bay. Here, overlooking the Tigris on the east and the desert on 
the west and south, was an easily defended elevation (Fig. 96), 
possessing a natural strength unknown to the towns in the flat 
Plain of Shinar. The place was known as Assur (see map, 
p. 100), and it later gave its name to the land of Assyria. 

Note. The headpiece shows an Assyrian king attacking a fortified city 
(ninth century B.C.). A century before the Empire the Assyrians had already 
developed powerful appliances for destroying a city wall. The city at the right 
is protected by walls of sun-dried brick like those of Samal (Fig. 97). The de- 
fending archers on the wall are trying to drive away a huge Assyrian battering- 
ram, mounted on six wheels, which has been rolled up to the wall from the left. 
It is an ancient " tank " with its front protected by metal armor plate. It carries 
a tower as high as the city wall, and Assyrian sharpshooters (archers) in the top 
of the tower are picking off the defenders of the wall. Within the tank unseen 
men work the heavy beam of the ram. It is capped with metal and is shown 
smashing a hole in the city wall, from which the bricks fall out. An observation 
tower with a metal-covered dome, and holes for peeping out, shields the officer in 
command as he directs the operation of the machine. In the rear (at the left) 
is the Assyrian king shooting arrows into the hostile city. He uses a powerful 
bow, invented in Egypt, which will shoot an arrow with great force from 1000 to 
1400 feet, and hence he can stand at a safe distance. This scene, carved on a 
slab of alabaster, is among the earliest Assyrian palace reliefs which have survived 
(§ 209), and hence the artist's childish representation of men as tall as city walls. 

140 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



141 



The region about Assur was a highland, enjoying a climate 
much more invigorating than the hot Babylonian plain. It had 
many fertile valleys winding up into the eastern and northern 
mountains, where rival cities were already in existence. Here an 
occasional promontory of rock furnished quarries of limestone, 
alabaster, and likewise 
harder stone. Herein 
Assyria differed greatly 
from Babylonia, which 
was without building 
stone, and had there- 
fore developed only 
architecture in brick. 
These eastern valleys 
were green with rolling 
pastures and billowing 
fields of barley and 
wheat. Herds of oxen 
and flocks of sheep and 
goats dotted the hill- 
side pastures. Donkeys 
served as the chief draft 
animals, and the horse 
was unknown in the 
beginning, just as it 
was originally unknown 
in Babylonia (§ 146). 
I Here flourished an 



200. Climate, 
soil, and 
products of 
Assyria 




Fig. 96. The Tigris and the Prom- 
ontory OF AsSUR AFTER A SNOW- 
STORM 

The river is at the left, and the fertile plain 
beyond it soon breaks into hills, leading 
up to the eastern mountains. The ruins of 
the ancient city occupy the promontory on 
the right (§ 199). The buildings in the 
foreground are those of the archaological 
expedition which excavated the ruins 



! agricultural population, little given to other industries or to 
I trade. In this last particular Assyria was again in sharp 
\contrast with Babylonia. 

By 3000 B.C. a Semitic tribe of nomads from the desert-bay 
had settled at Assur, as their kindred of Akkad were doing at 
the same time in the Plain of Shinar. As Semites they spoke 
a Semitic dialect like that of the Semites of Babylonia, with 



201. Found- 
ing of Assur 
(3000 B.C.) 
under 
Sumerian 
influence 




Fig. 07. The Aramean City of Samal, One of the Western 



Rivals of Assyria. (After von Luschan)* 



142 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 143 

differences no greater than we find between the dialects of 

different parts of Germany. The men of Assur at first formed 

a tiny city-kingdom like those of their Sumerian neighbors 

in the South (§ 162). It is evident that they were in close 

contact with the Sumerian towns, whose sculpture and writing 

(Fig. 79) they adopted. They likewise received the Sumerian 

calendar (§ 150) and most of the conveniences of Sumerian 

civilization. There may even have been some Sumerians 

among the early population of the town. 

While the early civilization of Assur thus came from the 202. Assur 

south, the little city-kingdom was equally exposed to influences Baby?onia° 

from the north and west. There in Asia Minor were the hostile ^"^ ^)^^ 

Hittites 

Hittite communities, some of which were venturing eastward to alternately ; 
the Two Rivers. More than once Assur was ruled by Hittite pansion of 
lords, only to fall back again under the control of Sargon, anrsouth^ 
Hammurapi, or some other ruler of Babylonia. Thus obliged 
for nearly fifteen hundred years after Sargon's reign to defend 
their uncertain frontiers against their neighbors on both north 
and south, the Assyrians were toughened by the strain of un- 
ceasing war. Meantime, too, they introduced the horse (§ 197) ; 
and added chariots to their army. Then the Assyrian kings 

* Plan (above). The city was nearly half a mile across. It was de- 
fended by a double wall of sun-dried brick on a heavy stone founda- 
tion {ABC). The wall was strengthened with towers every 50 feet, 
entirely round the city, making one hundred towers in all. The castle 
of the kings of Samal occupied a hill in the middle {G), and the houses 
of the townsmen filled the space between the city walls and the castle 
(Z>, E^ F). These houses built of sun-dried brick have disappeared, but 
the castle can be restored. Restoration of the Castle {H, I, J, IC, L, 
below). This is the castle, or citadel, marked G in the city plan (above). 
The walls of sun-dried brick rest on heavy stone foundations widen- 
ing at the base. Samal in north Syria, midway between the Medi- 
terranean and the Euphrates (map, p. loo), received influences both 
from the Hittites in Asia Minor (§353) and from Egypt. The columned 
porches (A' and L) in front of the palaces were built on a Hittite plan 
with columns suggested by Egyptian architecture. Hittite art in rehef 
(Fig. 148) adorned this porch. The Assyrians adopted these Western 
innovations (Fig. 105). 



144 



Ancient Times 



began pushing westward, and by 1300 B.C. they crossed the 
Euphrates and swept back the Hittites from the great river. 
At the same time they began to descend the Tigris with such 
power that they even captured and ruled for a time their old 
conqueror, Babylon, still under the rule of the half-barbaric 
eastern Kassites, who had brought in the horse (§ 197). 




Fig. 98, General View of Modern Damascus 

Damascus is still the largest city of Syria, having probably three hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants. When it became the most powerful Ara- 
mean city-kingdom (§ 203) it must have been surrounded by a wall like 
that of Samal (Fig. 97), with a splendid royal castle. The ruins of all 
these ancient Aramean buildings must now lie under those of the 
modern city, and hence ancient Damascus will never be excavated 



Phoenicians, 
Hebrews, and 
Arameans 



203. The Assur was still an inland power, much hke modern Russia, 

of Assyria : ^i^d could not hope to rule Western Asia without access to the 
Mediterranean. Along the Mediterranean coast new rivals 
arose to dispute her progress in the West. Here the harbor 
towns of former Semitic nomads (§ 141) had become a fringe 
of wealthy Phoenician city-kingdoms carrying on a flourishing 
commerce by sea (§ 396). These Phoenician cities proved ob- 
stinate enemies of the Assyrian kings. Meantime a new wave 
of Semitic nomads had rolled in from the desert-bay (§ 135). 
By 1400 B.C. they were endeavoring to occupy its western 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



145 



shores, that is, Palestine and Syria, just as the Assyrians had* 
done at Assur. These Western nomads were the Hebrews in) 
Palestine, and north of them the Arameans,^ or Syrians, occu-l 
pying Syria. They soon held the entire west end of the Fertile \ 
Crescent and cut off Assyria from the sea. After 1200 B.C. the ^ 
Arameans established a group of flourishing kingdoms in the 
West. Here, under the influence of Hittite civilization on one 
side and Egyptian on the 
other, these Aramean 
kingdoms of Syria built 
royal cities (Fig. 97), 
and luxurious palaces 
for their kings (Fig. 97, 
H-L), filled with sumptu- 
ous furniture (Fig. 100). 
Among these Aramean 
kingdoms of Syria the 
most powerful was 
J^aoiaseus (Fig. 98). 

The energetic Ara- 
mean merchants ex- 
tended their business far 
beyond their own king- 
doms. They pushed 
their caravans all along 

the shores of the desert-bay, even as far north as the sources 
of the Tigris, and they finally held the commerce of Western 
Asia. Their bronze weights found in the ruins of Nineveh 
(Fig. 99) show us how common were the Aramean merchants 
in the Assyrian market places. Like their kinsmen the Jews in 
modern civilized states, although they were not organized as a 
single nation, they were the great commercial leaders of the age. 




Fig. 99. 



Arameajst Weight 
IN Assyria 



FOUND 



The weight is of bronze, cast in the shape 
of a lion and equipped with a handle. The 
inscription on the edge of the base is in 
Aramaic. Fifteen of these Aramean Hon 
weights were found at one place, showing 
the common presence of Aramean mer- 
chants in the Assyrian markets (§ 204) 



204. 



Wide- 
spread 
Aramean 
commerce 



1 The Arameans are often called Syrians, and the region north of Palestine 
(see map, p. loo) is commonly called Syria. These two names, Syria and Syrians, 
are not to be confused with Assyria and Assyrians. 



146 



Ancient Times 



205. The 
Aramean 
merchants 
spread the 
first alphabet 
in Asia 



The Arameans were a highly civilized race. By 1000 b.c. 
they were using alphabetic writing, which they had borrowed 
from the Phoenicians (Section 40). It was the earliest system of 

writing known which em- 
ployed exclusively alpha- 
betic signs (Fig. 160). 
Along with the alphabet 
the Arameans also re- 
ceived the Egyptian pen 
and ink, conveniences in- 
dispensable in the use of 
the new alphabet (Fig. 
100). As the Babylonian 
caravans had in earlier 
times carried cuneiform 
tablets throughout West- 
ern Asia (§187), so the 
Aramean caravans, with 
their bills and receipts, 
began to carry through 
the same region the 
alphabet which was to 
displace cuneiform signs. 
Thus spread throughout 
Western Asia the Phoe- 
nician Aramean alpha- 
bet. It passed down the 
Euphrates, to Persia and 
the inner Asiatic lands, 
and even to the fron- 
tiers of India, to furnish 




Fig. 100. An Aramean King of 
Samal and his Secretary hold- 
ing AN Egyptian Writing Outfit 
(Eighth Century b.c.) 

The king sits at the left on a richly carved 
throne of ebony, ivory, and gold, with a 
footstool of the same design. Before him 
stands his secretary, carrying under his left 
arm something which looks much like a 
book ; but bound books were still unknown 
at this time. In his left hand he holds an 
Egyptian writing case containing pen and 
ink (cf. Fig. loi). The flat relief in which 
the entire scene is carved had its origin 
on the Nile. From Syria, in such cities as 
Samal, it passed to Assyria, where it was 
immensely improved (Fig. 107). (From 
a photograph by von Luschan) 



at length even the East Indian peoples with their alphabet. 

The Aramean merchants of course carried their language 
(called Aramaic) with them, and Aramaic gradually became very 
common all around the desert-bay. Indeed, in the old Assyrian 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



147 










■J" i 








#7 

Fig. 1 01. An Assyrian and an Aramean Scribe recording 

THE Plunder taken from a Captured Asiatic City (Eighth 

Century b.c.) 

The captive women and children ride by in oxcarts on their way to 
slavery in Assyria, and a shepherd drives off the captured flocks. At the 
left an Assyrian officer reads from a tablet his notes of the spoil taken 
in the city. Two scribes write as he reads. The first (in front) holds in 
his left hand a thick clay tad/ef, from which he has just lifted the stylus 
grasped in his right hand, as he pauses in his writing. The other scribe 
holds spread out on his left hand a ro// of papyrus, on which he is 
busily writing with a pen held in his right hand. He is an Aramean (§ 205), 
writing Aramaic with pen and ink. We see here, then, the two different 
methods of writing practiced at this time in Western Asia — the outgoing 
Asiatic clay tablet and the incoming Egyptian paper, pen, and ink 

communities the people who spoke Aramaic finally outnumbered 206. Assyrian 

. . and Aramaic 

the citizens of Assyrian speech. When an Aramean received a side by side in 
cuneiform tablet recording business matters in the Assyrian government 
language, he sometimes took his pen and marked it with memo- 
randa in Aramaic. Assyrian tablets bearing such notes in 
Aramaic have been found in the ruins of Assyrian buildings. 



148 



Ancient Times 



207. Com- 
plete triumphi 
of the Ara- ' 
maic lan- 
guage along 
the whole 
Fertile 
Crescent 



208. Ara- 
mean Damas- 
cus and her 
Semitic allies 
along the 
west end of 
the Fertile 
Crescent halt 
westward 
expansion 
of Assyria 



209. Growth 
of Assyrian 
civilization 
before the 
Empire, 
under influ- 
ences from 
Babylonia and 
the Hittites 



Indeed public business was finally carried on in both languages, 
Assyrian and Aramaic. Aramean clerks were appointed to gov- 
ernment offices, and it was a very common thing for an Ara- 
mean official of the Assyrian Empire to keep his records on 
papyrus, writing with pen and ink on a roll, while his Assyrian 
companion in office wrote with a stylus on a clay tablet (Fig. 1 01). 

Aramaic finally became the language of the entire Fertile 
Crescent. It even displaced its very similar sister tongue, the 
Hebrew of Palestine, and thus this merchant tongue of the 
Arameans, many centuries later, became the language spoken 
by Jesus and the other Hebrews of his time in Palestine 
(Fig. 131). In the end this widespread commercial civilization 
of the Arameans left more lasting influences behind than even 
the powerful military state of the Assyrians, as we shall see. 
Unfortunately the Aramean city mounds of Syria, with one ex- 
ception (Fig. 97), still remain unexcavated ; hence we have 
recovered but few monuments to tell us of their career. 

As wealthy commercial rulers, the Aramean kings of Damas- 
cus were long able to make their city so strong as to block 
further Assyrian advance toward the Mediterranean. One of 
the best illustrations of the effect of their power is the fact 
that Damascus long sheltered the feeble little Hebrew king- 
doms from Assyrian attack (see map, p. 100). The Assyrian 
army marched westward and looked out upon the Mediterranean 
by 1 1 GO B.C., but for more than three centuries after this the 
kings of Assur were unable to conquer and hold this western 
region against the strong group of Aramean, Phoenician, and 
Hebrew kingdoms. They held the Assyrian armies at bay 
until the eighth century B.C. 

As Assyrian power thus seemed to pause at the threshold of 
the Empire, let us look back for a moment over the long two 
thousand years of development and see what progress Assur 
had made in civilization since it had received from the Sume- 
rians such things as cuneiform writing (§ 201), etc. Assur was 
near enough to the North and West to feel influences from there 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



149 



also, especially from the Hittites (§ 356), who contributed much 
both in art and in religion. All these inherited things Assur 

had also cultivated and developed. 
She had added some two hundred 
cuneiform signs to the list received 
from Babylonia. Under influences 
from the Hittite art of north Syria 
(Fig. 100) the sculptors of Assur 
were learning to tell the story of the 
king's valiant exploits in elaborate 
stone pictures cut in flat relief on 
great slabs of alabaster (Figs. loi 
and 105). These were set up in long 
rows along the palace walls. This 
architectural sculpture was an art 
not practiced in Babylonia. As in 
sculpture, so also in architecture, 
the possession of stone enabled the 
Assyrians to do what had been 
impossible in stoneless Babylonia. 
The Assyrian builder could erect 
heavy foundations of stone under 
his buildings, as the Hittite and 
Syrian had long been doing. Above 
the foundation the Assyrian build- 
ing itself, however, continued to 
be made of sun-dried brick, as in 
Babylonia. 

Above is the winged sun-disk 

of Egypt, the borrowed symbol of the Assyrian Sun-god Assur (§ 210), 
whom we see shooting his deadly arrows. Below is the beautiful sym- 
bol of the tree of life, which originated in old Babylonia (see § 155). 
The early Babylonian worshiper's palm branch in a jar of water (§ 155) 
had been developed by artists into a decorative palm tree seen here 
rising like a post in the middle, with its spreading crown of leaves 
at the top and festooned with tufts of palm leaves like those on the 
top of the tree. In this form it was later much used by the Greeks 




Fig. 102. Symbol OF THE 
God Assur surmounting 
AN Assyrian Represen- 
tation OF THE Old Baby- 
lonian Tree of Life 



ISO 



Ancient Times 



210. Religion 
of Assur 



The sacred stories and symbols of the gods which had 
grown up among the Babylonian communities (§§ 171-173) 
were taken over by the men of Assur, who copied and studied 




Fig. 103. Stone Coffin of a King of Assyria a Century 
before the empire 

In this limestone sarcophagus (coffin) lay the body of an Assyrian king 
buried here twenty-eight hundred years ago, in the ninth century B.C. 
Above this sun-dried-brick vault in which he was buried rose the palace 
of Assur. The German excavators found here five such vaults under 
the floor of the palace. The dead Assyrian king was thus buried under 
his dwelling like ordinary Assyrians or Babylonians (Fig. 81). These are 
the first royal tombs ever found in Assyria. They had been broken open 
and robbed, the bodies of the kings scattered, and the coffins mostly shat- 
tered to pieces, over two thousand years ago, by the Parthians (§ 1023), 
and they were found empty by the excavators 



and revered them (Fig. 102). But the Assyrians clung to 
their old tribal god Assur, whose name was the same as that 
of their city and their tribe. He was a fierce god of war, 
whom they identified with the sun. He led the Assyrian 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 151 

kings on their victorious campaigns, and shot his deadly arrows 
far and wide among the foe (Fig. 102). As his symbol, the 
Assyrians borrowed the winged sun-disk from the Hittites of. 
Syria, who had received it from Egypt (cf. Figs. 34 and 102). 
Their great goddess was Ishtar^ the. goddess--^ -Jove, whom 
we have already met in Babylonia. Religion among the warlike 
Assyrians, as in Babylonia, had little effect upon the conduct 
of the worshiper. One reason for this was the fact that the 
Assyrians had much the same notions of the hereafter as the 
Babylonians, with no belief in a judgment to come. Their 
burials, as in Babylonia (Fig. 81), were placed under the floor 
or court of the dead man's house. 

Recent excavations at Assur uncovered a series of brick 211. Dis- 
vaults under the pavement of the royal palace. In these tomb? of the 
vaults were found fragments of massive stone coffins, two ^J"|^ 
of which, however, had not been broken up (Fig. 103). These 
are the oldest royal burials known in Asia, and the first ever 
found in Assyria; for in these coffins once lay the bodies of 
the powerful kings of Assur, who lived and ruled and built 
there, toward the end of the long two-thousand-year develop- 
ment which led up to the Assyrian Empire. 

Section 19. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 

606 B.C.) 

By the middle of the eighth century B.C., Assyria was 212. Con- 
again pushing her plans of westward expansion. Damascus, westward 
combined with the other Western kingdoms, made a desperate ^f^ss^'ria 
resistance, only to be slowly crushed. When at last Damascus 
fell (732 B.C.), the countries of the West were all subdued and 
made subject kingdoms. Thus the once obscure little city of 
Assur gained the lordship over Western Asia as head of an 
empire, a great group of conquered and vassal nations 
(§ 108). The story of that Empire forms the second great 
chapter of history along the Two Rivers. 



152 Ancient Times 

213. Sar- In the midst of these great Western campaigns of Assyria, 
A^" rL^/722- while he was besieging the unhappy Hebrew city of Samaria 
705 B.C.) ^§ 306), one of the leading Assyrian generals usurped the 

throne (722 b. c), and as king he took the name of Sargon, the 
first great Semite of Babylonia, who had reigned two thousand 
years earlier (§ 166). The new Sargon raised Assyria to the 
height of her grandeur and power as a military empire. His 
descendants were the great emperors of Assyria.^ On the 
northeast of Nineveh he built a new royal residence on a 
vaster scale and more magnificent than any Asia had ever 
seen before. He called it Dur-Sharrukin (Sargonburg). 
Its inclosure was a mile square, large enough to shelter 
a community of eighty thousand people, and the palace build- 
ing itself (Fig. 104) covered twenty-five acres. Babylonia in 
her greatest days had never possessed a seat of power like 
this. In no uncertain terms it proclaimed Assyria mistress of 
Western Asia. 

214. Sennach- The grandeur of Sargon II was even surpassed by his son 
681 B.C.) Sennacherib, one of the great statesmen of the early Orient. 

Far up in Asia Minor the name of Sennacherib was known 
and feared, as he plundered Tarsus and the easternmost Ionian 
Greek strongholds (§ 438) just after 700 B.C. Thence his 
campaigns swept southward along the Mediterranean to the 
very borders of Egypt. To be sure, much of Sennacherib's 
army was destroyed by a pest which smote them from the 
Delta marshes (§ 309), and hence Sennacherib never crossed 
the Egyptian frontier. But against Babylon, his other ancient 
rival, he adopted the severest measures. Exasperated by one 
revolt after another, Sennacherib completely destroyed the 
venerable city of Hammurapi and even turned the waters 
of a canal over the desolate ruins. 

1 The leading kings of the dynasty of Sargon II are as follows : 

Sargon II 722-705 B.C. 

Sennacherib 705-681 b.c. 

Esarhaddon 681-668 b.c. 

Assurbanipal (called Sardanapalus by the Greeks) . . 668-626 b. c. 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 153 

Thus Babylon was annihilated ; but the ancient power on 215. Egypt 
the Nile remained a continual disturber of Assyrian control. ^°"J"e''e.^ 
A crushing burden of Assyrian tribute had been laid on all 




Fig. 104. Restoration of the Palace and a Portion of the 

City of Sargonburg, the Royal Residence of Sargon II 

(722-705 B.C.). (After Place) 

The palace stands partly inside and partly outside of the city wall on 
a vast elevated platform of brick masonry containing about 25 acres. 
Inclined roadways and stairways rise from the inside of the city wall. 
The king could thus drive up in his chariot from the streets of the city 
below to the palace pavement above. The rooms and halls are clustered 
about a number of courts open to the sky. The main entrance (with 
stairs before it leading down to the city) is adorned with massive towers 
and arched doorways (§222) built of richly colored glazed brick (Plate II, 
p. 164) and embellished with huge human-headed bulls carved of alabaster. 
The temple tower behind the great court, inherited from Babylonia, was 
the ancestor of the Christian Church spire (Fig. 272). The streets and 
houses of the city filled the space below the palace within the city walls, 
which could accommodate some eighty thousand people (§ 213) 

subject states, and hence Egypt was constantly able to stir 
revolt among the oppressed Western peoples, who longed to 
be freed from the payment of this tribute. Assyria perceived 







^<J 





I i iw-:Sl 






SCALE OF FEET 



ISoo 43oo sobo 




m 



s ^ 



eeff</' 



[brought dfiwn by\ 



Khtise^r^B^ver 




the Tigris to >i^, 'MA *"*~* Cli sl P *• 





Sketch Map of Nineveh 

Notice the changes in the course of the Tigris, which formerly flowed 
along the west wall of the city. This change has been caused by the 
Khoser River, which has carried down soil and formed a plain between 
the wall of the city and the Tigris. In Fig. 203 we have a view from a 
housetop in Mosul, across the river from Nineveh, showing us this plain, 
with the mound of Kuyunjik just behind it. This mound covers the 
palaces of Sennacherib and Assurbanipal. A destructive overflow of 
the Khoser River, which flooded the city and broke down a section of 
the eastern wall, was one of the chief causes of the fall of Nineveh 



154 



The Assyrians mid Chaldeans 155 

that Egypt's interference must be stopped. Sennacherib's son, 
therefore, appeared before the gates of the eastern Delta forts 
by 674 B.C. Repulsed at first, he returned to the attack, and 
although he died before entering the Delta, Egypt at last fell 
a prey to the Assyrian armies, and Sennacherib's grandson was 
for a time lord of the lower Nile. 

By 700 B.C. the Assyrian Empire included all of the Fer- 216. Extent 
tile Crescent. It thus extended entirely around the great Assyrian 
desert-bay ; but it furthermore included much of the northern Empire 
mountain country far behind. The conquest of Egypt gave it 
also the lower Nile valley in the west, though this last was too 
distant and too detached to be kept long. Built up by irre- 
sistible and far-reaching military campaigns which went on for.- 
two generations after Sargon II, the Assyrian conquests finallyj 
formed the most extensive empire the world had yet seen. 

Sennacherib was not satisfied merely to enlarge the old royal 217. Nineveh 
residences of his fathers at Assur or at Sargonburg. He de- Assyrian 
voted himself to the city of Nineveh, north of Assur, and it '^^P^^^ 
now became the far-famed capital of Assyria. Along the Tigris 
the vast palaces (Fig. 104) and imposing temple towers of the 
Assyrian emperors arose, reign after reign. The lofty and 
massive walls of Nineveh which Sennacherib built stretched 
two miles and a half along the banks of the Tigris. Here in 
his gorgeous palace he ruled the western Asiatic world with an 
iron hand, and collected tribute from all the subject peoples. 

The whole administration centered in the king's business 218. Means 
office. He maintained a system of royal messengers, and in each cation and 
of the more important places on the main roads he appointed ^^^^If^^^^' 

an official to attend to the transmission of all royal business. Assyrian 

Empire 
In this manner all clay-tablet letters or produce and merchan- 
dise belonging to the royal house were sure of being forwarded. 
This organization formed the beginnings of a postal system^ 
which continued for many centuries in the Orient (§ 273). 

1 There are indications that it was already in existence in Asia, under Egyp- 
tian rule, as far back as 2000 B.C. 



1 56 



Ancient Times 













A^^V 




Fig. 105. 



ft^M^S'^i=?=WO^>"^.^,LMy(W 



Assyrian Soldiers pursuing the Fleeing Enemy 
ACROSS A Stream 



The stream occupies the right half of the scene. As drawn by the 
Assyrian artist, it may be recognized by the fish and the curhng waves ; 
also by the bows and quivers full of arrows floating downstream, along 
with the bodies of two dead horses, one on his back with feet up. Two 
dead men, with arrows sticking in their bodies, are drifting in mid- 
stream. Three of the living leap from the bank as their pursuers stab 
them with spears or shoot them with drawn bow. The Assyrian spear- 
men carry tall shields, but the archer needs both hands for his bow and 
carries no shield. The dead are strewn along the shore, occupying the 
left half of the scene. At the top the vultures are plucking out their 
eyes ; in the middle an Assyrian is cutting off a head ; beside him an- 
other plants his foot on a dead man's head and steals his weapons. 
The vegetation along the river is shown among the bodies 



In this way the emperor received the letters and reports of 
some sixty governors over districts and provinces, besides 
many subject kings who were sometimes allowed to continue 
their rule under Assyrian control. We even have several clay- 
tablet letters dispatched by Sennacherib himself while he was 




li^oM^!*^ 



f >:'^' 



T^\^^: 



.^ 



— ^ 





Fig. 107. Assyrian Soldiers of the Empire. (From the 
Palace Reliefs of Assurbanipal) 

It was the valor of these stalwart archers and spearmen which made 
Assyria mistress of the East for about a century and a half (§§ 220-221) 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 157 

crown prince, and addressed to his royal father, Sargon. To 
maintain the army was the chief work of the State. The State 
was a vast militaiy machine, more terrible than any mankind 
had ever yet seen (Fig. 105). We shall understand this situa- 
tion if we imagine that our war department were the central 
office in Washington, and that our government should devote 
itself chiefly to supporting it. 

An important new fact aided in bringing about this result. 219. The 
Through contact with the Hittite west (§360) iron had been EmpSe^and 
introduced among the Assyrians. The Assyrian forces were *^ ^^°" ^se 
\}ci^x^iox^^Jhe^^^tSJLlatge^XLr^ with weapons of iron. 

A single arsenal room of Sargori's palace was found to contain 
two hundred tons of iron implements. To a certain extent the 
rise and power of the Assyrian Empire were among the results 
of the incoming of iron. 

The bulk of the Assyrian army was composed of archers, sup- 220. The 
ported by heavy-armed spearmen and shield bearers (Fig. 107). Assyrians'^ 
Besides these, the famous horsemen and chariotry of Nineveh 
(Fig. 106, B) became the scourge of the East. For the first 
time too the Assyrians employed the battering-ram (head- 
piece, p. 140) and formidable siege machinery. The sun-dried- 
brick walls of the Asiatic cities could thus be battered down 
or pierced, and no fortified place could long repulse the assaults 
of the fierce Assyrian infantry. 

Besides their iron weapons and their war machines the 221. Ter- 
Assyrian soldiers displayed a certain inborn ferocity which Assyrian 
held all Western Asia in abject terror before the thundering ^"""^y 
squadrons of the Ninevites.^ Wherever the terrible Assyrian 
armies swept through the land, they left a trail of ruin and 
desolation behind. Around smoking heaps which had once 
been towns, stretched lines of tall stakes, on which were stuck 
the bodies of rebellious rulers flayed alive ; while all around rose 
mounds and piles of the slaughtered, heaped up to celebrate 
the great king's triumph and serve as a warning to all revolters. 

1 See Nahum iii, 2-3. 



158 



Ancient Times 



222. Civili- 
zation of the 
Assyrian 
Empire : 
architecture 



223. Civili- 
zation of the 
Assyrian 
Empire : 
sculpture 



Through clouds of dust rising along all the main roads of the 
Empire the men of the subject kingdoms beheld great herds 
of cattle, horses, and asses, flocks of goats and sheep, and long 
lines of camels loaded with gold and silver, the wealth of the 
conquered, converging upon the palace at Nineveh. Before 
them marched the chief men of the plundered kingdoms, with 
the severed heads of their former princes tied about their necks. 

While this plundered wealth was necessary for the support 
of the army, it also served higher purposes. As we have seen 
(Fig. 104), the Assyrian palaces were now imposing buildings, 
suggesting in architecture the far-reaching power of their builder. 
In the hands of the Assyrian architects the arch, inherited from 
Babylonia, for the first time became an imposing monumental 
feature of architecture. The impressive triple arches of the 
Assyrian palace entrance, faced with glazed brick in gorgeous 
colors (Plate II), were the ancestor of the Roman triumphal 
arches (Fig. 248). On either side were vast human-headed 
bulls wrought in alabaster, and above the whole towered lofty 
castellated walls of baked brick, visible far across the royal 
city (Fig. 104). 

Within the palace, as a dado running along the lower portion 
of the walls, were hundreds of feet of relief pictures cut in 
alabaster (see Figs. loi, 105,106,^, and 107). They show great 
improvement over the older work (headpiece, p. 140) a century 
before the Empire. They display especially the great deeds of 
the emperor in campaign and hunting field (Figs. 105 and 
106, B^. The human figures are monotonously alike, hard, cold, 
and unfeeling. Nowhere is there a human form which shows 
any trace of feeling, either joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain. The 
Assyrian sculptor's wild beasts, however, are sometimes mag- 
nificent in the abandon of animal ferocity which they display 
(Fig. 106, B^. The tiger was in the blood of the Assyrian, and 
it came out in the work of his chisel. On the other hand, the 
pathetic expression of suffering exhibited by some of these won- 
derful animal forms (Fig. 106, B) was a triumph of art, which the 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



159 




Assyrian sculptor owed to a study of the superb lions and bulls 
(Fig. 106, ^) on the exquisite old Babylonian seals of the age of 
Sargon I, two thousand years earlier. The art of portraiture in 
statue form never got beyond very crude and unskillful efforts. 

The emperors were 
obliged to depend much 
on foreign skill, both 
in art and industries. 
The art of glazing col- 
ored brick had been 
borrowed from Egypt 
(§ Z:^. All the patterns 
of Assyrian decorative 
art likewise came from 
Egypt, and their furni- 
ture made by Phoeni- 
cian workmen, of ebony 
and ivory, often be- 
trays Egyptian origin 
(Fig. 108). Phoenician 
craftsmen at Nineveh 
wrought splendidly en- 
graved bronze platters 
(Fig. 158). Sennache- 
rib tells us that he had 
in his palace " a portal 
made after the model 
of a Hittite palace," 
and his predecessors 
had long before built similar portals like those they had seen 
in the Hittite west (Fig. 97). It is in this ability to use foreign 
resources that we must recognize one of. the greatest traits of 
the Assyrian emperors. 

In the fine gardens which Sennacherib laid out along the 
river above and below Nineveh he planted strange trees and 



Fig. 108. Ivory Fragment of an 

Egyptian Winged Sphinx found in 

AN Assyrian Palace 

Such fragments of carved ivory were used 
in inlaying furniture like that in Fig. 100. 
They were the work of Phcenician crafts- 
men in the service of the Assyrian kings 
(§ 224). These workmen constantly em- 
ployed Egyptian designs and symbols com- 
bined with those of Assyria. The winged 
animal, first found in Egyptian art, passed 
to the Phoenicians and Hittites in Syria 
and thence to Assyria, where it finally de- 
veloped into the huge winged bull-figure 
adorning the front of the king's palace 



224. Assyrian 
borrowing 
from abroad 



i6o 



Ancient Times 



225. Intro- 
duction of for- 
eign plants, 
including 
earliest 
cotton 



226. Assur- 

banipal's 

library 



227. Internal 
decay; eco- 
nomic and 
agricultural 
decline 



plants from all quarters of his great empire. Among them 
were cotton trees, of which he says, '* The trees that bore wool 
they clipped and they carded it for garments." These cotton 
trees came from India. We thus see appearing for the first 
time in the ancient world the cotton which now furnishes so 
large a part of our own national wealth.^ 

Higher interests were also cultivated among the Assyrians, 
and literature flourished. Assurbanipal, grandson of Sennach- 
erib, and the last great Assyrian emperor, boasts that his 
father instructed him not only in riding and shooting with bow 
and arrow but also in writing on clay tablets and in all the 
wisdom of his time. A great collection _ of twenty-two thou- 
sand clay tablets was discovered in Assurbanipal's fallen library 
rooms at Nineveh, where they had been lying on the floor for 
twenty-five hundred years. They are now in the British 
Museum. In this library the religious, scientific, and literary 
works of past ages had been systematically collected by the 
emperor's orders (Fig. 109). They formed the earliest library 
known in Asia. The Assyrians were far more advanced in 
these matters than the Babylonians, and Assyrian civilization 
was far from being a mere echo of Babylonian culture. 

Like many another later ruler, however, the Assyrian em- 
perors made a profound mistake in policy. For their wars of 
conquest led to the destruction of the industrial and wealth- 
producing population, first within their own territory and then 
throughout the subject kingdoms. In spite of interest in intro- 
ducing a new textile like cotton, the Assyrian rulers did not 
or could not build up industries or commerce like those of 
Babylonia. The people were chiefly agricultural, and in the 
old days it had sufficed to call them from their farming for 
short periods to defend the frontiers. With the expansion of 
the Empire, however, such temporary bodies of troops were 
insufficient, and the peasants were permanently taken from the 



1 This cotton tree was doubtless related to the lower-growing cotton plant of 
our Southern states. 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



i6i 




Fig. 109. Portion of Old Babylonian Story of the Flood 

FROM AsSURBANIPAL'S LIBRARY AT NiNEVEH 

This large flat tablet was part of an Assyrian cuneiform book consist- 
ing of a series of such tablets. This flood story (§ 155) tells how the 
hero, Ut-napishtim, built a great ship and thus survived a terrible flood, 
in which all his countrymen perished. Each of these clay-tablet books, 
collected in fresh copies by Assurbanipal for his library (§ 226), bore 
his " bookmark " just like a book in a modern library. To prevent any- 
one else from taking the book, or writing his name on it, the Assyrian 
king's bookmark contained the following warning : " Whosoever shall 
carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name upon it side by side with 
mine own, may Assur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and 
may they destroy his name and posterity in the land " 



fields to fill thf^ ranks of an ever-growing standing army. It is 
not improbable that the ruling class were buying up the small 
farms to form great estates. We learn of disused canals and 



l62 



Ancient Times 



228. Foreign 

levies in 

the army ; 

Aramean 

merchants 

controlling 

trade 



229. Assaults 
from without : 
the Chal- 
deans from 
the desert 



230. Assaults 
from without : 
Indo- 
European 
peoples 
from the 
mountains 



idle fields as we read of Sargon's efforts to restore the old 
farming communities. Nevertheless, so vast an expansion of the 
Empire exceeded the power of the standing army to defend it. 

As reports of new revolts came in, the harassed ruler at 
Nineveh forced the subjects of his foreign vassal kingdoms 
to enter the army. With an army made up to a dangerous 
extent of such foreigners, with no industries, with fields lying 
idle, with the commerce of the country in the hands of the 
Aramean traders (§ 204), and Aramean speech more com- 
mon in the cities of the Empire, even in Nineveh, than that of 
the Assyrians themselves — under these conditions the Assyrian 
nation fast lost its inner strength. 

In addition to such weakness within, there were the most 
threatening dangers from without. These came, as of old, 
from both sides of the Fertile Crescent. Drifting in from the 
desert, the Aramean hordes were constantly occupying the 
territory of the Empire. Sennacherib in one campaign took 
over two hundred thousand captives out of Babylonia, mostly 
Arameans. At the same time another desert tribe called the 
" Kaldi," whom we know as the Chaldeans, had been for cen- 
turies creeping slowly around the head of the Persian Gulf and 
settling along its shores at the foot of the eastern mountains. 
They were Semitic nomads, repeating what the Akkadians had 
done in Akkad (§ 166), the Amorites in Babylon (§ 175), and 
the Assyrians at Assur (§ 201). 

On the other hand, in the northern mountains the advancing 
hordes of Indo-European peoples were in full view (see Sec- 
tion 21), led by the tribes of the Medes and Persians (§ 251). 
These movements shook the Assyrian State to its foundations. 
The Chaldeans mastered Babylonia, and then, in combination 
with the Median hosts from the northeastern mountains, they 
assailed the walls of Nineveh. 

Weakened by a generation of decline within, and struggling 
vainly against this combined assault from without, the mighty 
city of the Assyrian emperors fell (606 B.C.). In the voice 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 163 

of the Hebrew prophet Nahum (ii, 8, 13, and iii entire), we 231. Fall of 
hear an echo of the exulting shout which resounded from the desmlctLn 
Caspian to the Nile as the nations discovered that the terrible ?| Nineveh 

^ (606 B.C.) 

scourge of the East had at last been laid low. Its fall was 
forever, and when two centuries later Xenophon and his ten 
thousand Greeks marched past the place (§ 630), the Assyrian 
nation was but a vague tradition, and Nineveh, its great city, 
was a vast heap of rubbish as it is to-day (Fig. 203). Even 
Assyrian speech passed away, and Aramaic became the tongue 
of the region which had once been Assyria, just as it was also 
to become the language of Babylonia (§ 265). The second 
great chapter of history on the Two Rivers was ended, having 
lasted but a scant century and a half (about 75© to 606 B.C.). 

The fall of Assyria, while dramatically sudden and tragically 232. Progress 
complete, nevertheless left the nations of Western Asia in a the^Assyrian 
very different situation from that in which the first Assyrian Empire 
emperors had found them. The rule of a single sovereign had 
been enforced upon the whole great group of nations around 
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and the methods of 
organizing such an empire had been much improved. It was 
really in continuance of this organization that the great Persian 
Empire was built up (§ 260), sixty years after the fall of Assyria. 
The Assyrian Empire, especially in its great military organiza- 
tion, marked a long step forward in that gradual growth of the 
idea of all-including world power, which culminated at last in 
the Roman Empire. In spite of its often ferocious harshness, 
the Assyrian rule had furthered civilization. The building of the 
magnificent palaces in and near Nineveh formed the first chapter 
in great architecture in Asia. At the same time Nineveh pos- 
sessed the first libraries as yet known there. Finally, the Assyrian 
dominion, as we shall see (§ 307), created the international 
situation which enabled the Hebrews to gain the loftiest con- 
ceptions of their own God, as they matched him against the 
great war god of Assyria — conceptions which have profoundly 
influenced the entire later history of mankind. 



164 



Ancient Times 



Section 20. The Chaldean Empire 
Semitic Empire 



THE Last 



234. Reign of 

Nebuchad- 
nezzar (604- 
561 B.C.) 



233. Rise of The Kaldi, or Chaldeans, the new masters of Babylonia, 
Empire ^^" "ow founded an empire whose brief career formed the third 
great chapter of history on the Two Rivers.^ They were the 
"tasTBemitic lords of Babylonia. The Chaldeans made their 
capital at Babylon, rebuilt after its destruction by Sennacherib 
(§ 214). They gave their name to the land, so that we now 
know it as Chaldea (from " Kaldi "). While they left the 
Medes in possession of the. northern mountains, the empire 
of the Chaldeans included the entire Fertile Crescent. 

At Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of the Chaldean 
emperors, now (604 B.C.) began a reign of over forty years — a 
reign of such power and magnificence, especially as reflected to 
us in the Bible, that he has become one of- the great figures of 
oriental history. Exasperated by the obstinate revolts en- 
couraged by Egypt in the West, Nebuchadnezzar punished 
the Western nations, especially the little Hebrew kingdom of 
Judah. He finally carried away many Hebrews as captives to 
Babylonia and destroyed Jerusalem, their capital (586 B.C.). 

In spite of long and serious wars, the great king found time 
and wealth to devote to the enlargement and beautification of 
Babylon. Copying much from Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar was 
able to surpass his Assyrian predecessors in the splendor of the 
great buildings which he now erected. In the large temple 
quarter in the south of the city he rebuilt the temples of the 
long-revered Babylonian divinities (Fig. 206). Leading from 



235. Magnifi- 
cent build- 
ings of 
Chaldean 
Babylon 



1 The three great chapters of history on the Two Rivers are: 

1. Early Babylonia (thirty-first century to twenty-first century B.C.; Sargon I 
about 2750 B.C., Hammurapi about 2100 B.C.). See Sections 14-17. 

2. The Assyrian Empire (about 750 to 606 B.C.). See Section 19. 

3. The Chaldean Empire (about 606 to 539 B.C.). See Section 20. 

With the exception of parts of the first, these three epochs were periods of 
Semitic power. To these we might in later times add 2i fourth period of Semitic 
supremacy, the triumph of Islam in the seventh century a.d., after the death of 
Mohammed (§ 1154)- 



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The Assyrians and Chaldeans 



165 



these to the palace, he laid out a festival avenue which passed 
through an imposing gateway called the " Ishtar Gate " (Fig. 
no), for it was dedicated to this god3^ss. Behind it lay 




SCALE OF FEET 

l300 23oo 3000 4800 53(X) 



Map of Babylon in the Chaldean Age 



the vast imperial palace and the offices of government, while 
high over all towered the temple-mount which rose by the 
Marduk temple as a veritable ''Tower of Babel" (see § 152). 
Masses of rich tropical verdure, rising in terrace upon terrace, 



1 66 



Ancient Times 



236. Extent 
and modern 
excavation of 
Chaldean 
Babylon 



forming a lofty garden, crowned the roof of the imperial palace 
and, overlooking the Ishtar Gate, enhanced the brightness of 

its colors. Here in the cool 
shade of palms and ferns, 
inviting to luxurious ease, 
the great king might enjoy 
an idle hour with the ladies 
of his court and look down 
upon the^^lendors of his 
city. C These roof gardgn? 
of Nebuchadnezzar's pal- 
ace were the mysterious 
Hanging Gardens of Baby- 
lon, whose fame spread 
far into the West until 
they were numbered by 
the Greeks among the 
Seven Wonders of the 
World. Babylon thus be- 
came a monumental city 
like those of Assyria and 
Egypt (§ 113). 

For the first time Baby- 
lonia saw a very large city. 
It was immensely extended 
by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
enormous fortified walls 
were built to protect it, in- 
cluding one (above the 
city) that extended entirely 
across from river to river. 
It is this Babylon of Nebu- 
chadnezzar whose marvels 
over a century later so im- 
pressed Herodotus (§567), 










Fig. 1 10. The Ishtar Gate of the 

Palace Quarter of Babylon in 

THE Chaldean Empire (Sixth 

Century b.c.) 

This gate, recently excavated by the 
Germans (cf. Fig. in), is the most im- 
portant building still standing in Baby- 
lon. It is not a restoration like F'ig. 206. 
The towers rising on either side of the 
gate are adorned with the figures of 
animals in splendidly colored glazed 
tile, as used also in the Assyrian pal- 
aces (Plate II, p. 164). Behind this gate 
rose the sumptuous palace of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, crowned by the beautiful 
roof gardens known as the Hanging 
Gardens of Babylon (§ 235) 



The Assyrians and Chaldeans 167 

as is shown in the description of the city which he has left us. 
This, too, is the Babylon which has become familiar to all 
Christian peoples as the great city of the Hebrew captivity 
(Section 31). Of all the glories which made it world renowned 
in its time, little now remains. The excavations in the city 



ilf«ilW%H«5J:.l 



;^»t%JAfrfs^a^#|t^^ 



.v^^UiL 



I 




Fig. III. Beginning of the Excavation of Ancient Babylon 
ON March 26, 1899 

The mounds shown are the rubbish covering the palace of Nebuchad- 
nezzar (§ 235). The palms in the background fringe the Euphrates. 
The Arab workmen in the foreground have just uncovered part of 
the pavement of Nebuchadnezzar's splendid Festival Street, or pro- 
cessional avenue, which connected the palace and the Ishtar Gate 
(Fig. no) with one of the great temples. Beneath all these works of 
Chaldeaji Babylon (Section 20) should lie the remains of old Babylon 
of Hammurapi's age (Section 17) ; but Sennacherib's destruction of the 
city (§ 214) swept away the older Babylon. Since the first day's work 
shown above, eighteen years of excavation at Babylon have uncovered 
almost nothing older than the city of Nebuchadnezzar 

(Fig. Ill), which continued from 1899 to 19 17, slowly revealed 
one building after another, the scanty wreckage of the ages. 
These excavations revealed the Festival Street and the Ishtar 
Gate (Fig. 1 1 o), but the Ishtar Gate is almost the only build- 
ing in all Babylonia of which any impressive remains survive. 
Elsewhere the broken fragments of dingy sun-baked-brick walls 
suggest little of the brilliant life which once ebbed and flow^ed 
through these streets and public places. 



1 68 Anciejit Times 

237. Civili- The Chaldeans seem to have absorbed the civilization of 
Chaldean Babylonia in much the same way as other earlier Semitic 
Babylon invaders of this ancient plain (§§ 167, 175). Commerce and 

business flourished, the arts and industries were highly devel- 
. oped, religion and literature were cultivated and their records 
were put into wedge-writing on clay tablets as of old. 

238. Rise of Science made notable progress in one important branch — 
and^astrofogy astronomy. The Babylonians continued the ancient practice 

of trying to discover the future in the heavenly bodies (see 
§ 192). This art, which we call " astrology," was now very 
systematically pursued and was really becoming astronomy. 
The equator was divided into 360 degrees, and for the first 
time the Chaldean astrologers laid out the twelve groups of 
stars which we call the '' Twelve Signs of the Zodiac." Thus 
for the first time the sky and its worlds were being mapped out. 

239. Origin The five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, 

of names of 1 r> \ • n 1 i 1 n- 

the planets and Saturn) were especially regarded as the powders controUmg 
the fortunes of men, and as such the five leading Babylonian 
divinities were identified with these five heavenly bodies. The 
names of these Babylonian divinities have descended to us as 
the names of the planets. But on their way to us through 
Europe, the ancient Babylonian divine names were translated 
into Roman forms. So the planet of Ishtar, the goddess of 
love, became Venus, while that of the great god Marduk 
became Jupiter, and so on. The celestial observations made 
by these Chaldean " astrologers," as we call them, slowly be- 
came sufficiently accurate, so that the observers could already 
foretell an eclipse. These observations when inherited by the 
Greeks formed the basis of the science of astronomy, which 
the Greeks carried so much further (§ 492). The practice of 
astrology has survived to our own day; we still unconsciously 
recall it in such phrases as " his lucky star " or an " ill-starred 
undertaking." 

We can discern in the new architecture of Babylon how this 
Chaldean Age brought Babylonia up to the new and higher 



/ de 

V Wi 



T/ie Assyrians mid Chaldeans 169 

level of civilization attained by Assyria. Nevertheless, the 240. The 
Chaldeans themselves fancied that they were restoring the revlvaf of 
civilization of the old Babylonia of Hammurapi. The scribes *^^ P^^^ 
loved to employ an ancient style of writing and out-of-date 
forms of speech ; the kings tunneled deep under the temple 
foundations and searched for years that they might find the 
old foundation records buried (like our comer-stone documents) 
by kings of ancient days (§ 160). 

This dependence upon the past meant decline. After the 241. Decline 
death of Nebuchadnezzar (561 B.C.), whose reign was the high- oriental 
water mark of Chaldean civilization, the old civilized lands of ^^"^^^ 

e Orient seemed to have lost most of their former power to 
go forward and to make fresh discoveries and new conquests 
in civilization, such as they had been making during three great 
ages on the Nile and three similar ages on the Two Rivers. 
Indeed the leadership of the Semitic peoples in the early world 
was drawing near its close, and they were about to give way 
before the advance of new peoples of the Indo-European race 
(Section 21). The nomads of the southern desert were about 
to yield to the hardy peoples of the northern and eastern moun- 
tains, and to these we must now turn. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 18. Where does the second chapter of history on the 
Two Rivers carry us? Describe the region about Assur. Who 
founded Assur, and when '^. Whence did they gain the beginnings of 
civilization .'* Was Assur also exposed to influences from the North ? 
What was the result? Who were the Western rivals of Assur? Tell 
about the Arameans and what they accomplished. What important 
thing did they carry throughout Western Asia? What prevented 
Assyria from reaching the Mediterranean ? What had Assyrian civili- 
zation achieved by this tirne t What has recent excavation discovered 
under the palace of Assur ? 

Section 19. What city had chiefly prevented Assyria from con- 
quering the West? When was Damascus captured by Assyria? What 
was the result in the West? Who was the founder of the leading 



I/O 



Ancient Times 



line of Assyrian emperors? Describe his new city. What was the 
extent of the Assyrian Empire? How was its government carried 
on ? What can you say about Assyrian warfare ? about architecture 
and sculpture ? Was all this of Assyrian origin ? What can you say 
of the reign of Sennacherib in war, building, or any other important 
matters ? What can you tell of Assurbanipal ? What dangers within 
and without caused the fall of Assyria? What peoples destroyed 
Nineveh, and when ? What became of the ruins of the city ? What 
progress resulted from the rule of the Assyrian Empire ? 

Section 20. What empire formed the third chapter of history 
on the Two Rivers ? Who founded it, and when ? Whence did they 
come ? Who was the greatest Chaldean king ? What did he accom- 
plish in war? What people did he carry away captive? Describe 
his buildings at Babylon. Had there been any large cities in Baby- 
Ionia before his time ? Whence did he borrow much in the architec- 
ture of his palace? What has become of his buildings? In what 
science did the Chaldeans make great progress ? What astronomical 
names have descended to us from them? Could they predict an 
eclipse? To what race did the Chaldeans belong? W^hat race was 
to follow them in oriental leadership ? 

Note. The following sketch shows us a temple of the Assyrians at Assur as 
restored by the excavators. Behind the temple court is the holy of holies, and on 
each side of it rises a temple tower with a winding ascent, after the old Babylonian 
manner (§152). It was from such towers that the tower architecture of the 
early world arose, eventually producing our own church spires, of which the 
Babylonian temple tower was the ancestor (see Fig. 272). 





CHAPTER VI 

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE 

Section 21. The Indo-European Peoples and 
THEIR Dispersion 1 



We have seen that the Arabian desert has been a great 242. The 
reservoir of unsettled population, which was continually leaving grasslands 
the grasslands on the margin of the desert and shifting over 
into the towns to begin a settled life (§ 135). Corresponding 
to these grasslands of the South ^ there are similar grasslands 
in the North (Fig. 112). These Northern grasslands stretch from 
the lower Danube eastward along the north side of the Black 
Sea through southern Russia and far into Asia north and east 

Note. The headpiece above shows ancient fire altars still surviving in Persia. 
Nearby are the tombs of the great Persian kings (Fig. ii8) not far from Persep- 
olis (Fig. 116), the capital of Persia, and these kings doubtless often worshiped 
before the fires blazing on these altars. 

1 Section 21 should be carefully worked over by the teacher with the class 
before the class is permitted to study it alone. The diagram (Fig. 112) should 
be put on the blackboard and explained in detail by the teacher, and the class 
should then be prepared to put the diagram on the board from memory. This 
should be done again when the study of the Greeks is begun (§ 370), and a 
third time when Italy and the Romans are taken up. 



1/2 Ancient Times 

of the Caspian (see map, p. 676). In ancient times they always 
had a wandering shepherd population, and time after time, for 
thousands of years, these Northern nomads have poured forth 
over Europe and Western Asia, just as the desert Semites of 
the South have done over the Fertile Crescent (§ 135). 

243. The two These nomads of the North were from the earliest times a 
European great white race, which we call Indo-European. We can perhaps 
and Semitic ^^g^. explain this term by saying that these Indo-Europeans 

were the ancestors of the present peoples of Europe. As our 
forefathers came from Europe, the Indo-European nomads 
were also our own ancestors. These nomads of the Northern 
grasslands, our ancestors, began to migrate in very ancient 
times, moving out along diverging routes. They at last ex- 
tended in an imposing line from the frontiers of India on the 
east, westward across all Europe to the Atlantic, as they do 
to-day (Fig. 112). This great northern line was confronted on 
the south by a similar line of Semitic peoples, extending from 
Babylonia on the east, through Phoenicia and the Hebrews west- 
ward to Carthage and similar Semitic settlements of Phoenicia 
in the western Mediterranean (§ 135, and map, p. 288). 

244. The The history of the ancient world, as we are now to follow it, 

struff"2'"lc be* 

tween the two was largely made up of the struggle between this souther?i Semitic 
European*'^" ^^'^^' ^hich issued from the Southern grasslands, and the northern 
and Semitic Bido- European line, which came forth from the Northern grass- 
lands to confront the older civilizations represented in the south- 
ern line. Thus as we look at the diagram (Fig. 112) we see 
the two great races facing each other across the Mediterranean 
like two vast armies stretching from Western Asia westward to 
the Atlantic. The later wars between Rome and Carthage 
(Sections 78, 79) represent some of the operations on the 
Semitic left wing; while the triumph of Persia over Chaldea 
(Section 23) is a similar outcome on the Semitic right wing. 

The result of the long conflict was the complete triumph of 
our ancestors, the Indo-European line, which conquered along 
the center and both wings and finally gained unchallenged 




/ 



! 



Indo-European Line 



Semitic Line 




H s^^i 



173 



174 Ancient Times 

245. Tri- supremacy throughout the Mediterranean world under the 
European Greeks and Romans (Sections 37-98). This triumph was ac- 
the indo- companied by a long struggle for the mastery between the mem- 
European bers of the northern line themselves. Among them the victory 

moved from the east end to the west end of the northern line, 
as first the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans, 
gained control of the Mediterranean and oriental world. 

246. The Let us now turn back to a time before the Indo-European 
European people had left their original home on the grasslands. Modern 
an?their°^ ^ Study has uot yet determined with certainty the region where 
original home the parent people of the Indo-European nomads had their 

home. The indications now are that this original home was 
on the great grassy steppe in the region east and northeast of 
the Caspian Sea. Here, then, probably lived the parent peo- 
ple of all the later Indo-European race. At the time when they 
were still one people, they were speaking one and the same 
tongue. From this tongue have descended all the languages 
later spoken by the civilized peoples of modern Europe, includ- 
ing, of course, our own English, as we shall see. 

247. Civili- Before they dispersed, the parent 'people were still in the 
the Indo- Stone Age for the most part, though copper was beginning to 
pa^erSpTople ^ome in, and the time must therefore have been not later than 

2500 B.C. Divided into numerous tribes, they wandered at will, 
seeking pasture for their flocks, for they already possessed 
domestic animals, including cattle and sheep. But chief among 
their domesticated beasts was the horse^ which, as we recall, 
was still entirely unknown to the civilized oriental nations 
until after Hammurapi's time (see § 197). They employed j 
" him not only for riding but also for drawing their wheeled 
carts. The ox already bore the yoke and drew the plow, foi 
some of the tribes had adopted a settled mode of life, ancj 
cultivated grain, especially barley. Being without writing, the) | 
possessed but little government and organization. But thejl 
were the most gifted and the most highly imaginative peopl< 
of the ancient world. 



The Medo-Persian Empire 175 

As their tribes wandered farther and farther apart they lost 248. The 
contact with each other. Local peculiarities in speech and cus- the^indo" ° 
toms became more and more marked, until wide differences European 

' parent people 

resulted. While at first the different groups could doubtless 
understand one another when they met, these differences in 
speech, gradually became so great that the widely scattered 
tribes, even if they happened to meet, could no longer make 
themselves understood, and finally they lost all knowledge 
of their original kinship. This kinship has only been redis- 
covered in very recent times. The final outcome, in so far as 
speech was concerned, was the languages of modern civilized 
Europe ; so that, beginning with England in the West and going 
eastward, we can trace more than one common word from 
people to people entirely across Europe into northern India. 
Note the following : 

WEST >■ EAST 

English German Latin Greek 

brother bruder frater phrater 
mother mutter mater meter 
father vater pater pater 

. In the West these wanderers from the Northern grasslands had 
already crossed the Danube and were far down in the Balkan 
peninsula by 2000 B.C. Some of them had doubtless already 
entered Italy by this time (§ 775), illustrating what we learned 
in studying Stone Age Europe, about the shifting habits of 
shepherd or nomad peoples, as they drive their flocks from 
pasture to pasture (§ 35). These Western tribes were, of course, 
the ancestors of the Greeks and Romans. We shall later join 
them and follow them in their conquest of the Mediterranean 
(Sections 37-98). Before doing so, however, we have to watch 
the easterfi wing of the vast Indo-European line as it swings 
southward and comes into collision with the right wing of the 
Semitic line. 



Old Persian 
and Avestan 


To KHAR 

(in Central Asia) 


East Indian 
(Sanskrit) 


brata 


pracar 


bhrata 


matar 


macar 


mata 


pitar 


pacar 


pita 



176 



Ancient Times 



Section 22. The Aryan Peoples and the Iranian 
Prophet Zoroaster 



249. The 

Aryans ; the 
advance of 
the eastern 
wing of 
the Indo- 
European 
line 



250. Sanskrit- 
speaking 
tribes in 
India 



251. Medes 
and Persians 
further west 
toward the 
Fertile 
Crescent 



It is now an established fact that the easternmost tribes of the 
Indo-European line, having left the parent people, were pastur- 
ing their herds in the great steppe on the east of the Caspian by 
about 2000 B. c. Here they formed a people properly called the 
Aryans ^ (see Fig. 112), and here they made their home for some 
time. The Aryan people had no writing, and they have left no 
monuments. Nevertheless, the beliefs of their descendants show 
that the Aryan tribes already possessed a high form of religion, 
which summed up conduct as " good thoughts, good deeds." 
Fire occupied an important place in this faith, and they had a 
group of priests whom they called " fire-kindlers." 

When the Aryans broke up, perhaps about 1800 B.C., they 
separated into two groups. The Eastern tribes wandered south- 
eastward and eventually arrived in India. In their sacred books, 
which we call the Vedas, written in Sanskrit, there are echoes 
of the days of Aryan unity, and they furnish many a hint of the 
ancient Aryan home on the east of the Caspian. 

The other group, whose tribes kept the name " Aryan " in the 
form '' Iran," ^ also left this home and pushed westward and 
southwestward into the mountains bordering our Fertile Crescent 
(§ ^Z'i)' ^^ ^'^ them Iranians, and among them were two 

1 The Indo-European parent people apparently had no common name for 
all their tribes as a great group. The term " Aryan " is often popularly applied to 
the parent people, but this custom is incorrect. "Aryan" (from which "I ran "and 
" Iranian " are later derivatives) designated a group of tribes, a fragment of the 
parent people, which detached itself and found a home for some centuries just 
east of the Caspian Sea. When we hear the term " Aryan " applied to the Indo- 
European peoples of Europe, or when it is said that we ourselves are descended 
from the Aryans, we must remember that this use of the word is historically in- 
correct, though very common. The Aryans, then, were Eastani descendants of 
the Indo-European parent people, as we are Western descendants of the parent 
people. The Aryans are our distant cousins but not our ancestors. 

2 They have given their name to the great Iranian plateau, which stretches 
from the Zagros Mountains eastward to the Indus River. This whole region was 
known in Greek and Roman days as Ariana, which (like " Iran") is, of course, 
derived from " Aryan " (see map, p. 436). 



The Me do- Persian Empire I'J'J 

powerful tribes, the Medes and the Persians.-^ We recall how, 
in the days of Assyria's imperial power the Medes descended 
from the northern mountains against Nineveh (§ 230). This 
southern advance of the Indo-European eastern wing was thus 
overwhelming the Semitic right wing (Fig. 112) occupying the 
Fertile Crescent. 

By 600 B.C., after the fall of Assyria (§ 231), the Medes had 252. The 
established a powerful Iranian empire in the mountains east of (indo 
the Tigris. It extended from the Persian Gulf, where it included European) 

o ' Empire 

the Persians, northwestward in the general line of the mountains threatens 
to the Black Sea region. The front of the Indo-European east- (Semitic) 
ern wing was thus roughly parallel with the Tigris at this point, ^ ^ ^^^^ 
but its advance was not to stop here. Nebuchadnezzar (§ 234) 
and the Chaldean masters of Babylon looked with anxious 
eyes at this dangerous Median power. The Chaldeans on the 
Euphrates represented the leadership of men of Semitic blood 
from the southern pastures. Their leadership was now to be 
followed by that of men of Indo-European blood from the 
northern pastures (§ 242). K?> we see the Chaldeans giving 
way before the Medes and Persians (§ 261), let us bear in 
mind that we are watching a great racial change, and remember 
that these new Iranian masters of the East were our kindred ; 
for both we and they have descended from the same wander- 
ing shepherd ancestors, the Indo-European parent people, who 
once dwelt in the far-off pastures of inner Asia, probably five 
thousand years ago. 

All of these Iranians possessed a beautiful religion inherited 253. The 
from old Aryan, days (see § 249). Somewhere in the east- the Iranians 
ern mountains, as far back as 1000 B.C., an Iranian named 
Zoroaster began to look out upon the life of men in an effort 
to find a new religion which would meet the needs of man's 
life. He watched the ceaseless struggle between good and evil 

1 About 2100 B.C., in the age of Hammurapi, long before the Iranians reached 
the Fertile Crescent, their coming was announced in advance by the arrival of 
the horse in Babylonia (see § 197). 



178 Ancient Times 

which seemed to meet him wherever he turned. To him it 
seemed to be a struggle between a group of good beings on the 
one hand and of evil powers on the other. The Good became 
to him a divine person, whom he called Mazda, or Ahura- 
mazda, which means " Lord of Wisdom " and whom he re- 
garded as God. Ahuramazda was surrounded by a group of 
helpers much like angels, of whom one of the greatest was the 
Light, called " Mithras." Opposed to Ahuramazda and his 
helpers it was finally believed there was an evil group led by 
a great Spirit of Evil named Ahriman. It was he who later 
was inherited by Jews and Christians as Satan. 

254. judg- Thus the faith of Zoroaster grew up out of the struggle of 
after " life itself, and became a great power in life. It was one of the 

noblest religions ever founded. It called upon every man to 
stand on one side or the other; to fill his soul with the Good 
and the Light or to dwell in the Evil and the Darkness. What- 
ever course a man pursued, he must expect a judgment here- 
after. This was the earliest appearance in Asia of belief in a last 
judgment. Zoroaster maintained the old Aryan veneration of fire 
(§ 249) as a visible symbol of the Good and the Light, and he 
preserved the ancient fire-kindling priests (headpiece, p. 171). 

255. Zoroas- Zoroaster went about among the Iranian people, preaching his 
hlsnSv'^ ^^ new religion, and probably for many years found but little 
religion response to his efforts. We can discern his hopes and fears 

alike in the little group of hymns he has left, probably the only 
words of the great prophet which have survived. It is charac- 
teristic of the horse-loving Iranians that Zoroaster is said to 
have finally converted one of their great kings by miraculously 
healing the king's crippled horse. The new faith had gained a 
firm footing before the prophet's death, however, and before 
700 B.C. it was the leading religion among the Medes in the 
mountains along the Fertile Crescent. Thus Zoroaster became 
the first great founder of a religious faith. 

As in the case of Mohammed, it is probable that Zoroaster 
could neither read nor write, for the Iranians possessed no 



The Medo-Persian Empire 179 

system of writing in his day (see § 266). Besides the hymns 256. The 
mentioned above, fragments of his teaching have descended to peSan Bible 
us in'writings put together in the early Christian centuries, over 
a thousand years after the prophet's death. They form a book 
known as the Avesta. This we may call the Bible of the Persians. 

Section 23. Rise of the Persian Empire: Cyrus -/- C>^' 

No people became more zealous followers of Zoroaster than 257. The 
the group of Iranian tribes known as the Persians. Through the i?rsi?ns- 
ithem a knowledge of him has descended to us. At the fall of trajit^o^s ^"*^ 
Nineveh (606 B.C.) (§ 231) they were already long settled in 
the region at the southeastern end of the Zagros Mountains, 
just north of the Persian Gulf. Its shores are here little better 
than desert, but the valleys of the mountainous hinterland are 
rich and fertile. Here the Persians occupied a district some 
four hundred miles long. They were a rude mountain peasant 
folk, leading a settled agricultural life, with simple institutions, 
no art, no writing or literature, but with stirring memories of 
their past. As they tilled their fields and watched their flocks 
they told many a tale of their Aryan ancestors and of the 
ancient prophet whose faith they held. 

They acknowledged themselves vassals of their kinsmen the 
Medes, who ruled far to the north and northwest of them. 258. Cyrus 
One of their tribes dwelling in the mountains of Elam (see organizes 
map, p. 100), a tribe known as Anshan, was organized as a Jribe^^into'a 
little kingdom. About fifty years after the fall of Nineveh this nation and 

conquers 

little kingdom of Anshan was ruled over by a Persian named the Medes 
Cyrus. He succeeded in uniting the other tribes of his kindred 
Persians into a nation. Thereupon Cyrus at once rebelled 
against the rule of the Medes. He gathered his peasant 
soldiery, and within three years he defeated the Median king 
and made himself master of the Median territory. The ex- 
traordinary career of Cyrus was now a spectacle upon which 
all eyes in the West were fastened with wonder and alarm. 



i8o 



Ancient Times 



259. The The overflowing energies of the new conqueror and his 

ersian army ^^^^^^^ soldiery proved irresistible. The Persian peasants seem 

to have been remarkable archers. The mass of the Persian 

army was made up 

£1'—^^ -li-~— f^A-— i " — ^— L — ^-T of bowmen (Fig. 1 1 3), 

whose storm of arrows 
at long range over- 
whelmed the enemy 
long before the hand- 
to-hand fighting be- 
gan. Bodies of the 
skillful Persian horse- 
men, hovering on 
either wing, then rode 
in and completed the 
destruction of the foe. 
These arrangements 
were taken by the 
Persians from the As- 
syrians, the greatest 
soldiers the East had 



260. Cyrus 
conquers 
the West 




Fig. 113. Persian Soldiers 

Although carrying spears when doing duty 
as palace guards, these men were chiefly 
archers (§ 259), as is shown by the size of 
the large quivers on their backs. The bow 
hangs on the left shoulder. The royal body- 
guard may also be seen wielding their spears 
around the Persian king at the battle of 
Issus (Fig. 202). Notice the splendid robes 
worn by these palace guards. The figures 
are done in brightly colored glazed brick — 
an art borrowed by the Persians (see Plate II, 
p. 164) and employed to beautify the palace 
walls. The restoration in Fig. 204 shows 
such a frieze of archers in position along 
the wall of the palace court 



ever seen. 

The great states 
Babylonia (Chaldea) 
and Egypt, Lydia un- 
der King Croesus in 
western Asia Minor 
(§ 497), and even 
Sparta in Greece 
(§ 426) formed a 
powerful combination 
against this sudden 
menace, which had 
risen like the flash 
of a meteor in the 



The Medo-Pe7'sia7i Empire 



I8l 



eastern sky. Without an instant's delay Cyrus struck at Croesus 
of Lydia, the chief author of the hostile combination. One 
Persian victory followed after another. By 546 B.C. Sardis, 
the Lydian capital (Fig. 173), had fallen, and Croesus, the 
Lydian king, was a prisoner in the hands of Cyrus. Cyrus at 
once gained also the southern coasts of Asia Minor. Within 
five years the power of the little Persian kingdom in the 
mountains of Elam had swept across Asia Minor to the Mediter- 
ranean and had become the leading state in the oriental world. 




Fig. 114. Barrel-Shaped Clay Record of the Capture of 
Babylon by Cyrus (539 b.c.) 

It tells how "without battle and without fighting Marduk [God of 
Babylon] made him [Cyrus] enter into his city of Babylon ; he spared 
Babylon tribulation, and Nabonidus the [Chaldean] king who feared 
him not, he delivered into his hand." Nabonidus, the Chaldean king of 
Babylon, was not in favor with the priests, and they assisted in deliver- 
ing the city to Cyrus 

Turning eastward again, Cyrus had no trouble in defeating 261. Cyrus 
the Chaldean army led by the young crown prince Belshazzar, Babybnia 
whose name in the Book of Daniel (see Dan. v) is a household (Chaldea) 
word throughout the Christian world. In spite of the vast walls 
erected by Nebuchadnezzar to protect Babylon (§ 236), the 
Persians entered the great city in 539 B.C., seemingly without 
resistance (Fig. 114). 

Thus only sixty-seven years after the fall of Nineveh (§ 231) 
had opened the conflict between the former dwellers in the 
Northern and the Southern grasslands, the Semitic East 



l82 



Ancient Times 



262. Collapse 
of the Semitic 
East before 
the Indo- 
European 
assault 



263. Cam- 
byses con- 
quers Egypt ; 
Persia rules 
whole civi- 
lized East 



completely collapsed before the advance of the Indo-European 
power. Some ten years later Cyrus fell in battle (528 B.C.) 
as he was fighting with the nomads in northeastern Iran. His 
body was reverently laid away in a massive tomb of impressive 
simplicity at Pasargadae (Fig. 115), where Cyrus himself had 
established the capital of Persia. Thus passed away the first 
great conqueror of Indo-European blood. 

All Western Asia was now subject to the Persian king ; but 
in 525 B.C., only three years after the death of Cyrus, his son 
Cambyses conquered Egypt. This conquest of the only remain- 
ing ancient oriental power rounded out the Persian Empire to 
include the whole civilized East from the Nile Delta, around 
the entire eastern end of the Mediterranean to the .-Egean, 
and from this western boundary eastward almost to India. 
The great task had consumed just twenty-five years since the 
overthrow of the Medes by Cyrus. It was an achievement for 
which the Assyrian Empire had prepared the way, and the 
Persians were now to learn much from the great civilizations 
which had preceded them. 



264. Persian 
kings at 
Babylon 
absorb civili- 
zation of the 
East they 
rule 



Section 24. The Civilization of the Persian 
Empire (about 530 to 330 b.c.) 

The Persians found Babylon a great and splendid city, with 
the vast fortifications of Nebuchadnezzar stretching from river 
to river and his sumptuous buildings visible far across the Baby- 
lonian plain (§§ 235-236). The city was the center of the 
commerce of Western Asia and the greatest market in the early 
oriental world. Along the Nile the Persian emperors now ruled 
the splendid cities whose colossal monuments we have visited. 
These things and the civilized life which the Persians found 
along the Nile and the Euphrates soon influenced them greatly, 
as we shall see. 

Aramaic, the speech of the Aramean merchants who filled 
the busy market places of Babylon, had by that time become 



^^^ 








o 


c1> 


CL, 


.-H 


W 


« 5?. 


C/5 


w tiO 


Cti 


^ 5 


W 


o a, 


Oh 


-^ fi 




>^ O 


H 




-< 


o c 

1^ ^ 


c/2 


il 


W 




J 
< 


<U ^H O 


bJO rt - 


Cm 


2 52 ti 
(u c .ir 


^ 


«n 


< 


Persi 


h as an 
ich the 
ust as i 




w 


bJD-G •- > 


a: 


:s ^ >; 


H 


,- M-l .« 


fe 


^ o^ 


o 


en w "rt 




• ^ <u >, 




S^ 2 


-< 


c rt m 


o 


rt D-^ 






Q 


C C >^ 


<U (U rt 


:z; 


.. '^ ^ 


<| 


3i cc (U 




X •-; o 



m 

ho ^ 



a 



"2 s^ c: 






rt O 



The Medo-Persian E-^npire 183 

the language of the whole Fertile Crescent. Business docu- 265. Ara- 
ments were now written in Aramaic with pen and ink on Se^^angua^? 
papyrus, and clay tablets bearing cuneiform writing were slowly °^ Persian 
disappearing. The Persian officials were therefore obliged to tion in the 
carry on their government business, like the collection of taxes, 
in the Aramaic tongue throughout the western half of the Per- 
sian Empire. Even as far as the Nile and western Asia Minor, 
they sent- out their government documents in Aramaic, this 
universal language of business (Fig. 131)- 

The government of the Persian kings, like that of the 266. Persians 
Assyrian Empire, was thus "bilingual" (§ 206), by which we cuneiform 
mean that it employed two languages — Aramaic and the ^^P^abet 
old Persian tongue. Even in writing Persian, the Persians 
often employed Aramaic letters, as we write English with 
Roman letters. At the same time, having probably gained 
from Aramaic writing the idea of an alphabet, the Persian 
scribes devised another alphabet, of thirty-nine cimeiform signs, 
which they employed for writing Persian on clay tablets. 
They also used it when they wished to make records on large 
monuments of stone (Fig. 117). Thus the Persians, who had 
been so long entirely without writing, began to make enduring 
written records after they entered the Fertile Crescent. These 
monuments are the earliest Persian documents which have 
descended to us. 



* This royal stairway, the finest surviving from the ancient world, 
was laid out by Darius and finished by Xerxes. A proud inscription of 
Darius cut in cuneiform on the wall of the stairway looks down upon 
the visitor. It reads : '' Darius the king saith : ' This land of Persia, 
which Ahuramazda has entrusted to me, the land that is beautiful, that 
hath good people and fine horses, — by the will of Ahuramazda and my 
will, it fears no enemy.' " The terrace wall is from 30 to 50 feet high, 
but the steps of the grand stairway are so low that a horse may be 
easily ridden up the steps to the terrace. Leading from the stairway is 
the magnificent gate built by Xerxes, guarded on either hand by huge 
winged bulls, an art symbol borrowed by Persia from Assyria. Beyond 
the gate still rise two splendid columns of the imposing colonnade 
erected by Xerxes to adorn this entrance. 







Fig. 117. Triumphal Monument of Darius the Great, the 
RosETTA Stone of Asia, on the Cliff of Behistun 

This impressive monument is the most important historical document 
surviving in Asia. It is made up of four important parts : the rehef 
sculptures {A) and the three inscriptions {B, C, B). B is a. great inscrip- 
tion, in columns some 12 feet high, recording the triumph of Darius over 
all his enemies in the extensive revolts which followed his coronation. 
It is in the Persian language, written with the new cuneiform alphabet of 
thirty-nine letters which the Persians devised (§ 266). The other two in- 
scriptions (C and B>) are translations of the Persian [B). C therefore 
contains the same record as the Persian [B] ; but it is in the Babylonian 
language and is written in Babylonian cuneiform with its several hun- 
dred wedge-signs (§ 149). Z>, the third inscription, is also cuneiform, 
in the language of the region of Susa, a'nd hence is called Susian. Thus 
the Great King published his triumph in the three most important 
languages of this eastern region and placed the record overlooking a 
main road at Behistun (see map, p. 436) where the men of the caravans 
passing between Babylon and the Iranian Plateau would look up 300 feet 
and see the splendid monument 25 feet high and 50 feet wide. To reach 
it requires a dangerous climb, and it was on this lofty cliff, at the risk 
of his life, that Sir Henry Rawlinson copied all three of these cunei- 
form inscriptions (1835-1847). By the use of these copies Rawlinson 
succeeded in deciphering the ancient Babylonian cuneiform (§§ 282- 
283) ; and this great monument of Darius therefore enabled modern 
historians to recover the lost language and history of Babylonia and 
Assyria. It did for Western Asia what the Rosetta Stone did for Egypt. 
(Drawn from photographs of the British Museum Expedition) 
184 



The Medo-Persian Empire 185 

The organization of such a vast empire, stretching from the 267. Organi- 
Indus River to the ^gean Sea (almost as long as the United Persiln 
States from east to west) and from the Indian Ocean to the Empire by 

^ Danus 

deserts of the Caspian, was a colossal task. It demanded an 
effort of organization on a greater scale than any ruler had ever 
attempted before. It was much too great an undertaking to be 
completed by Cyrus. Begun by him, it was carried through by 
Darius the Great (521-485 B.C.), and his organization remains 
one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the 
ancient Orient, if not of the world. The rule of Darius was just, 
humane, and intelligent, but the subject peoples had of course 
no voice in government. All that the Great King decreed was 
law, and all the peoples bowed to his word. Darius says in the 
Behistun inscription (Fig. 117), " By the grace of Ahuramazda 
these lands have conformed to my decree ; even as it was com- 
manded unto them by me, so was it done." Let us therefore 
notice an important fact here revealed : this system was not 
only attempting government on a larger scale than the world 
had ever seen before, but it was government controlled by 07ie 
7nan. The ancient world never forgot the example of the vast 
Persian Empire controlled by one-man power. 

Darius did not desire further conquests, but he planned to 268. The 
maintain the Empire as he had inherited it. He caused himself provincial 
to be made actual king in Eg).^pt and in Babylonia, but the ^y^^^"* 
rest of the Empire he divided into twenty provinces, each 
called a '' satrapy," each province being under a governor 
called a ''satrap," who was appointed by the Great King, as 
the Persian sovereign came to be called. These arrangements, 
while similar to those of the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Egyptian 
empires, were a further development of provincial rule under 
governors. Indeed the Persian Empire was the first example 
of a fully organized group of subject peoples and nations ruled 
as provinces, an arrangement which we may call a provincial 
system. The subject nations, or provinces under Persian rule, 
enjoyed a good deal of independence in local matters of their 



1 86 



Ancient Times 



269. Landsj 
tribute, and - 
coinage 



270. Darius 
turns to the 



own government, as long as they paid regular tribute and 
furnished recruits for the Great King's army. To discover and 
prevent local rebellion, the revolt of a governor or people against 
the Persian government, the Great King kept officials residing 
in each subject state, who were called, after an old Egyptian 
custom, the King's Ears or the King's Eyes, and whose duty 
was to report all insubordination. Ail this was an advance upon 
the rule of the Assyrian Empire. 

Farm lands were divided into vast domains held by powerful 
nobles and other great landowners. There were few small 
land-owning farmers. All paid dues to help make up the tribute 
collected from all parts of the Empire. In the East it was paid, 
as of old, in produce (§§75 and 189). In the West, chiefly Lydia 
and the Greek settlements in western Asia Minor (§375), the 
coinage of metal was common by 600 B.C. (§ 458), and there 
this tribute was paid in coined money. The Eastern countries — 
Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia herself — were not quick to adopt 
this new convenience. Darius, however, began the coinage of 
gold and permitted his satraps to coin silver. The rate was 
about thirteen to one, that is to say, gold was worth about 
thirteen times as much as silver. Thus the great commercial 
convenience of coined money issued by the State began to 
come into the Orient during the Persian period. 

Nothing shows the wise statesmanship of Darius the Great 
more clearly than his remarkable efforts to make Persia a 
great sea power. It was no easy "task for an inland nation 
of shepherds and peasants like the Persians, separated from 
the water by desert shores, to gain control of the sea. The 
endeavors of Darius in this direction may be compared with 
the policy of the German emperor in building up a strong 
navy. Unlike Emperor William, however, Darius was obliged 
to employ foreign navigators. He dispatched a skillful Medi- 
terranean sailor named Scylax to explore the course of the 
great Indus River in India. Then Darius ordered him to sail 
along the coast of Asia from the mouth of the Indus westward 



The Medo-Persia?i Empire 187 

to the Isthmus of Suez. Scylax was the first Western sailor 
known to have sailed along this south coast of Asia, so little 
known at that time (about 500 B.C.). 

At Suez, Darius restored the ancient but long filled-up canal 271. Darius 
of the Egyptians connecting the Nile with the Red Sea (§ 104). and \Ve?t'by 
Along the ancient route of this canal have been found frag- ^ ^"^^ ^^'^^ 
ments of great stone tablets erected by Darius (see map, p. 36). 
They bear an account of the restoration of the canal, in which 
we find the words of Darius : " I commanded to dig this canal, 
from the stream flowing in Egypt, called the Nile, to the sea 
[Red Sea] which stretches from Persia. Then this canal was 
dug as I commanded, and ships sailed from Egypt through this 
canal to Persia, according to my will." Darius evidently cherished 
what proved to be a vain hope, that the south coast of Persia 
might come to share in the now growing commerce between 
India and the Mediterranean world. As Persia was now lacking 
in small landowners, so also was she lacking in small and enter- 
prising merchants, who might have become great promoters 
of commerce. 

Unlike the Assyrians, Darius treated the Phoenician cities 272. Persia 
with kindness, and succeeded in organizing a great Phoenician earnest great 
war fleet. We shall find that Darius' son Xerxes could depend ?ea power 

^_^ ^ in Asia 

upon many hundreds of ships for warfare and transportation 
in the eastern Mediterranean (§§ 501, 510). Thus the more 
enlightened Persian kings accomplished what the Assyrian 
emperors never achieved, and Persia became the first great 
sea power in Asia. 

The Persian emperors maintained communication by excel- 273. System 
lent roads from end to end of the vast Empire. On a smaller communi- 
scale these roads must have done for the Persian Empire what ^^'^^^^ 
railroads do for us. Royal messengers maintained a much more 
complete postal system than had already been introduced under 
the Assyrian Empire (§ 218). These messengers were surpris- 
ingly swift, although merchandise required about as much time 
to go from Susa to the ^gean Sea as we now need for going 



i88 



Ancient Times 



around the world. A good example of the effect of these roads 
was the incoming of the domestic fowl, which we commonly 
call the chicken. Its home was in India and it was unknown 




^T ..~^---?_^-'^' ^ '■-^■^ 



Fig. ii8. Tombs of the Earlier Kings of Persia a Few 
Miles from the Ruins of Persepolis 

After Cyrus and his son Cambyses had passed away, the Persian kings, 
beginning with Darius, excavated their tombs in the face of this chff, 
about six miles from their palaces at Persepolis (Fig. ii8). Here then 
are the tombs of Darius I (the Great) (third from the left), Xerxes (at 
the far end), Darius II and Artaxerxes I (first and second from the left). 
Of the first six great kings of Persia we thus have the tombs of five 
(tomb of Cyrus, Fig. 1 15), leaving out Cambyses the conqueror of Egypt, 
whose tomb has never been found. The remaining three royal tombs 
belonging to the last three kings of the Achaemenian line (the line of 
Darius) (Artaxerxes II, Artaxerxes III, and Darius III) are cut in the 
cliff behind the palaces of Persepolis (Fig. 116). The square above the 
colonnade in each tomb front shows a sculptured picture of the king wor- 
shiping Ahuramazda before a fire altar. All of these tombs were broken 
open and robbed in ancient times, like the tomb of Cyrus (Fig. 115). 
Inside, in niches, are the massive stone coffins in which Darius, Xerxes, 
and the other kings and their families were buried 



in the Mediterranean until Persian communications brought it 
from India to the v^gean Sea. Thus the Persians brought to 
Europe the barnyard fowl so familiar to us. 






The Medo-Persian Empire 189 

The ancient Elamite city of Susa, in the Zagros Mountains 274. Capital 
(see map, p. 100), was the chief residence and capital (Fig. 204). residences 
The mild air of the Babylonian plain, however, attracted the 
sovereign during the colder months, when he went to dwell in 
the palaces of the vanished Chaldean Empire at Babylon. In 
spite of its remoteness the earlier kings had made an effort to 
live in their old Persian home. Cyrus built a splendid palace near 
the battlefield where he had defeated the Medes at Pasargadae 
(see map, p. 436), and Darius also established a magnificent 
residence at Persepolis (Fig. 1 1 6), some forty miles south of 
the palace of Cyrus. Near the ruins of these buildings the 
tombs of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and the other Persian em- 
perors still stand in their native Persia (Fig. 118). 

The Persian architects had to learn architecture from the 275. Archi- 
old oriental peoples now subject to Persia. The enormous 
terraces (Fig. 116) on which the Persian palaces stood were 
imitated from Babylonia. The winged bulls at the palace 
gates (Fig. 116) were copied from those of Assyria and the 
West. The vast colonnades (Fig. 116) stretching along the 
front and filling the enormous halls — the earliest colonnades 
of Asia — had grown up over two thousand years earlier on 
the Nile (Fig. 56). Likewise the gorgeously colored palace 
walls of enameled brick (Figs. 113, 204, and Plate II, p. 164) 
reached Persia from the Nile by the way of Assyria and the 
West.^ Thus the great civilizations which made up the Empire 
were merged together in the life of the Persian Empire. 

Section 25. Persian Documents and the 
Decipherment of Cuneiform 

The adoption by the Persians of the mixed oriental civili- 276. The 
zation which they found on the Fertile Crescent has been place of 
of the greatest scientific importance. It was the documents me'nts^iifthe' 

1 It is very noticeable that the Persian architects did not adopt the arch from „„_? „r ' 
Babylonia. On the contrary, each door in the palace of Darius (Fig. 204) is euneiform 
topped with a horizontal block of stone, copied from Egyptian doors. 



190 Ancient Times 

produced by the Persians when they learned to write cuneiform 
there, which first enabled us to read the cuneiform inscriptions 
of Western Asia (§ 160). Without the documents left us by 
the Persians, modern scholars would still be unable to read the 
thousands of clay tablets which we discussed in our study of 
Babylonia and Assyria (Figs. 79, 92, 109, and 126). 

277. Cunei- When Aramaic had displaced the Babylonian and Assyrian 

form writing , /r. ^ x i • i 

ceases; Baby- languages (§ 265), there came a time when no one wrote any 

Assyria are I'nore clay tablets or other records in the ancient wedge-writing.^ 

forgotten Nearly two thousand years ago the last man who could read 

a cuneiform tablet had passed away. The history of Babylonia 

and Assyria was consequently lost under the city mounds 

(§§ 158-161) along the Tigris and Euphrates. 

278. Grote- Before 1800 a.d. travelers in Persia had brought back to 

fend recovers „ , ... .. ... ,., 

the sounds Europc a number 01 copies 01 cuneiform inscriptions which 
Perskn signs ^^^ ^^^ found engraved on the ruined walls of the Persian 
(1802) palaces (Fig. 116). These inscriptions were observed to con- 

tain a very limited number of cuneiform signs, and hence there 
seemed to be some possibility of learning their meaning. In 
1802 a German schoolmaster at Gottingen named Grotefend 
identified and read the names of Darius and Xerxes and some 
other words and names in these Persian inscriptions. He was 
finally able to read two short Persian inscriptions in cuneiform 
(Fig. 1 1 9). These were the first Persian inscriptions to be 
read in modern times, but they were so short that they were 
far from including all the cuneiform signs in the Persian 
alphabet, and Persian cuneiform writing was still by no 
means deciphered. 

279. Rawlin- A number of other interested European scholars were able 
cipherment to discover the sounds of nearly all the other signs in the 
cunei^o^m^^^" Persian cuneiform alphabet. Meantime a gifted British officer, 
(1847) Sir Henry Rawlinson, while he was stationed in Persia, had suc- 
ceeded in collecting far more Persian inscriptions than were avail- 
able in Europe. Among them was the great Behistun inscription 

1 The latest cuneiform document known is dated 68 b. c. 






Iff m ^y K> >yr<if <? \2«iy ^ m k- ky tTk^ 
3MH M 3t !!= v4«TT ^ fn tf T<y yf y<- v^«yy « m 



K Y<y ?f K- m ►< m -It! \g«n <( tIt T<- K1 11 K- \ 



yn N^ft <ff f» \}0<K «!T yfr ^T^T K M << n K- ^ii <-< 



K-^Tf-M -M ^=ryr !> ^f -M ^in <y <y7 ::< {^i << 



£" 



l«yy<<Tfm nicy's ^HT(K<viKrK^}iK-^^1^H'^1 



yi= <^«yT ^ m K- Kt yf Y<- \5«n << m y<- y<y yf y<- yTt 



:< yn -yyy \6ff m tf y<r ^12- <:< <y7 << \7«yy 5 yTr K- T<! 



Tr K-<>< K- m \8f? <fT y1 \9<K «ii m -hi K-yf << yfK- ^ 



Fig. 119. The Two Old Persian Inscriptions which were 

FIRST deciphered AND READ (§ 278) 

The Persian scribes separated the words in their inscriptions by insert- 
ing an oblique wedge between all words. The above Arabic numbers 
are here added in order to be able to refer to the different words. It will 
be seen that these numbers (except /) always stand where the oblique 
wedge shows a new word begins. Grotefend (§ 278) noticed that the 
same word is repeated a number of times in each of these inscriptions. 
In E compare Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6, and they will be recognized as the 
same word. In J^ it occurs also four times (Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 7). As these 
inscriptions were found above the figures of Persian kings, Grotefend 
therefore suspected that this frequent word must be the Persian word 
for " king." Moreover, as it occurs in both inscriptions as No. 2^ the 
preceding word (No. /) would probably be the name of the king, the 
two words being arranged thus : " Darius [the] king." Grotefend then 
found that the words for the titles of the kings of Persia were known 
in later Persian documents. Guided by the known titles, he attempted 
the following guess as to the arrangement and meaning of the words : 

1 2 3 4 

unknown name of [the] king [the] great king 

a Persian king 

5 6 7 8 

of kings, of king unknown name of the son 

a Persian king 

etc. (6, 7, and 8 meaning "the son of King So-and-so"). He next ex- 
perimented with the known names of the kings of Persia, and judg- 
ing from their length, he found that the probable name for No. i 
in E was " Darius," and for No. i m. F was " Xerxes." The result 
may be seen in Fig. 120 
191 



192 



Ancie7it Times 



280. Value 
of Persian 
cuneiform in 
deciphering 
Babylonian 
cuneiform 



Kh 



sha 



sha 



«TT X T<-fTT^^TTT 



Fig. 120. 



The Name of Xerxes in Old 
Persian Cuneiform 



of Darius (Fig. 117). In 1847 Rawlinson published a complete 
alphabet of the Old Persian cuneiform, containing thirty-nine 
phonetic signs. Along with this alphabet he published also a 

complete transla- 
tion of the Persian 
portion of the long 
Behistun inscrip- 
tion (^ in Fig. 117). 
This showed that 
he had completed 
the decipherment 
of the Old Persian 
cuneiform — a feat 
all the more re- 
markable on the 
part of Rawlinson 
because he worked 
the Orient, al- 



This is the first word in Fig. 119, supposed by 
Grotefend to be " Xerxes." Now, just as our 
" Charles " is an imperfect form of the ancient 
name "Carolus," so the name we call " Xerxes " 
waspronounced by the old Vt.x^v3Si^Khshayarsha. 
The above seven signs therefore should be 
read : Kh-sha-y-a-r-sha-a. Grotefend in this 
way learned the sounds for which these signs 
stood. Now some of these signs appear in the 
word Grotefend thought was " king " in Per- 
sian. Hence it was now possible for Grotefend 
to see if he could find out how to pronounce 
the ancient Persian word for '*king." And the 
reader can do the same. Let him copy on a slip 
of paper the first three signs in the word sup- 
posedly meaning "king"; for example, use 
word 2 in Fig. 119. Now take these three 
signs and compare them with the signs in 
"Xerxes" (Fig. 120). The student will find that 
the three signs he has copied are the same as 
the first, second, and seventh signs in the word 
"Xerxes" (Fig. 120). Let us write down in a 
row the sounds of these three signs (first, second, 
and seventh), and we find we have Kh-sha-a. 
The ancient Persian word for " king " must have 
begun with the sounds Kh-sha-a. When we 
compare this with " shah," the title of the 
present king of Persia, it is evident that Grote- 
fend was on the right road to decipher Old 
Persian cuneiform 



in 

most entirely in ig- 
norance of parallel 
work by scholars 
in Europe. 

Scholars • were 
now able for the 
first time to read 
Old Persian inscrip- 
tions, and much 
valuable informa- 
tion was gained, 
especially from a 
study of the great 
Behistun monu- 
ment (Fig. 117). But the number of Persian inscriptions sur- 
viving is very small. The chief value of the ability to read 
ancient Persian cuneiform records lay in the fact that this 



The Medo-Persian Empire I93 

Persian writing might form a bridge leading over to an under- 
standing of ancient Babylonian cuneiform. 

Scholars had early discovered that the inscription C on the 281. Dis- 
Behistun monument was written with the same cuneiform signs one of the 
which were also observable on many of the older clay tablets i^scdptions 
(Figs. 80 and 02) and stone monuments found in Babylonia, was in the 
Meantime the museums of London and Pans were receivmg guage and 
great sculptured slabs of alabaster (Figs. loi, 105, and 106) JhosTof^^ 
from Nineveh and the palace of Sargon (Fig. 104), bearing fj^^^gg'^jg^ 
many inscriptions, all in the language and writing of inscription 
C on the Behistun monument (Fig. 117). Scholars therefore 
perceived that if they could decipher inscription C at Behistun, 
they would be able to read all the ancient documents of Baby- 
lonia and Assyria, reaching back to a far greater age than the 
few surviving Persian inscriptions. 

Every indication led to the conclusion that inscription C at 282. Behis- 

-r.1- -n.11- 1- riT-.- • ^UH monU- 

Behistun was a Babylonian translation 01 the Persian portion, ment, the 

already translated by Rawlinson. The Behistun monument st^n^^of 

might therefore become the Rosetta Stone of Western Asia, Western Asia 
and enable scholars to read the ancient Babylonian language, 
as the Rosetta Stone had enabled them to read the ancient 

Egyptian language. We can diagram this situation thus: 1 

Rosetta Stone Behistun Monument 

Containing: Containing: 

1. Egyptian inscription i. Babylonian cuneiform inscrip- 
deciphered by scholars by tion to be deciphered by scholars 
comparison with by comparison with 

2. The Greek translation 2. The Persian translation under- 
understood by scholars stood by scholars (since Rawlin- 

son's translation, § 279) 

Many scholars attacked the problem, but they found it far 283. Rawiin- 

more difficult than the decipherment of the Persian had been ; cipherment 

for the Persian cuneiform had contained only forty signs, while the ?j^^p^^^°"'^" 
Babylonian was found to use over five hundred (see § 209). 



194 



Ancient Times 



284. The 

modern 
science of 
Assyriology 



It was again Rawlinson, however, who accomplished the task. 
In 1850 he published his results. They were followed the 
next year by a full translation of the Babylonia?i portion of 
the Behistun inscription. 

The city-mounds of Babylonia and Assyria at once began 
to speak and to tell us, piece by piece, the three great chapters 
of history along the Two Rivers (Sections 14-20) — some- 
thing over twenty-five hundred years of the story of man in 
Western Asia, of which the world before had been entirely 
ignorant. A group of scholars arose who devoted themselves 
to the study of the vast body of cuneiform documents on clay 
and stone which was then coming and still continues to come 
from the ruined cities of Assyria and Babylonia (Fig. 84). We 
call such scholars Assyriologists. Thus it happened that we 
owe to documents left us by the Persian kings the creation of 
a new and wonderful branch of knowledge and the recovery 
of the ancient history of Western Asia. 



Section 26. The Results of Persian Rule 
AND its Religious Influence 



285. Decline 
of Persia 



286. Charac- 
ter of the 
Persian kings 
and their rule 



For the oriental world as a whole, Persian rule meant 
about two hundred years of peaceful prosperity (ending about 
■^T^T^ B.C.). The Persian kings, however, as time went on, were 
no longer as strong and skillful as Cyrus and Darius. They 
loved luxury and ease and left much of the task of ruling to 
their governors and officials. This meant corrupt and ineffective 
government ; the result was weakness and decline. 

The later world, especially the Greeks, often represented 
the Persian rulers as cruel and barbarous oriental tyrants. 
This unfavorable opinion is not wholly justified. The Persian 
emperors felt a deep sense of obligation to give just govern- 
ment to the nations of the earth. Darius the Great in the 
Behistun Inscription (Fig. 117) says: "On this account Ahu- 
ramazda brought me help, . . . because I was not wicked, 



The Medo-Persian Empire 195 

nor was I a liar, nor was I a tyrant, neither I nor any of my 
line. I have ruled according to righteousness." There can be 
no doubt that the Persian Empire, the largest the ancient world 
had thus far seen, enjoyed a government far more just and 
humane than any that had preceded it in the East. 

Many such statements as that of Darius just quoted show 287. Spread 
that the Persian rulers were devoted followers of Zoroaster's religion^" 
teaching. Their power carried this noble faith throughout 
Western Asia and especially into Asia Minor. Here Mithras, 
regarded by Zoroaster as a helper of Ahuramazda (§253), 
appeared as a hero of light, and finally as a Sun-god, who 
gradually outshone Ahuramazda himself. PYom Asia Minor 
Mithras passed into Europe, and, as we shall see, the faith 
in the mighty Persian god spread far and wide through the 
Roman Empire, to become a dangerous competitor of Chris- 
tianity (§ 1064). 

In matters of religion, as in many other things, the Persian 288. Far- 
Empire completed the breakdown of national boundaries and compSkion 
the beginning of a long period when the leading religions of among onen- 
the East were called upon to compete in a great contest for the 
mastery among all the nations. The most important of the re- 
ligions which thus found themselves thrown into a world struggle 
for chief place under the dominion of Persia was the religion 
of the Hebrews. While we leave the imperial family of Persia 
to suffer that slow decline which always besets a long royal 
line in the Orient, we may glance briefly at the little Hebrew 
kingdom among the Persian vassals in the West, which was 
destined to influence the history of man more profoundly than 
any of the great empires of the early world. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 21. What great race inhabited the northern grasslands.? 
How did their migrations finally distribute them? What rival line 
confronted them on the south .? Describe the life and dispersion of 
the Indo-European parent people. Where are their descendants now.'* 



196 



Ancient Times 



Section 22. From whom did the Aryan people come forth? 
What became of them when they left their first home ? What great 
tribes of the Aryans came toward the Fertile Crescent? Who was 
their great prophet, and what did he teach ? When did he probably 
live ? 

Section 23. What can you say of the rise and conquests of 
Cyrus? What race did he subdue on the Fertile Crescent? What 
race thus became the leaders? What was the extent of the Persian 
Empire? How long had it taken to conquer it? Give dates. 

Section 24. Did the Persians possess a civilization like those 
which they found in Babylonia and Egypt ? Describe the organi- 
zation of the Empire by Darius, and his rule. What was the land 
system like? What can you say about his plans for commerce by 
sea and land? Where was the capital? How did Persian architec- 
ture arise? Give examples. 

Section 25. Can you write the three signs with which the aticient 
Persians began their word for " king "? What is the modern Persian 
word for " king " ? What monument became the Rosetta Stone of 
Western Asia ? Can you explain how ? What was the result ? 

Section 26. How long did the Persian Empire last? Give dates. 
What can you say about the character of the Persian kings ? W^hat 
was happening among the religions of the East? What great reli- 
gion was involved in this struggle ? 

Note. The sketch below shows the ruins of Persepolis (cf. Fig. ii6). 




• CHAPTER VII 

THE HEBREWS AND THE DECLINE OF THE ORIENT 

Section 27. Palestine and the Predecessors of 
THE Hebrews there 



The home of the Hebrews was on the west end of the 
Fertile Crescent (§ 132), in a land now called Palestine.^ It 
is the region lying along the southeast corner of the Mediter- 
ranean — a narrow strip between desert and sea ; for while the 
sea limits it on the west, the wastes of the desert-bay (§ 133) 
sweep northward, forming the eastern boundary of Palestine 
(see map, p. 100). It was about one hundred and fifty miles 
long, and less than ten thousand square miles are included 
within these limits ; that is, Palestine was somewhat .larger 
than the state of Vermont. 

Much of this area is unproductive, for the desert intrudes 
upon southern Palestine and rolls northward in gaunt and 
arid limestone hills, even surrounding Jerusalem (Fig. 127). 
The valleys of northern Palestine, however, are rich and 

Note. The above headpiece shows us a caravan of Canaanites trading in 
Egypt about 1900 B.C. as they appeared on the estate of a feudal baron in Egypt 
(§ 99)' The Egyptian noble had this picture of them painted with others in his 
tomb (Fig. 57), where it still is. Observe the shoes, sandals, and gay woolen 
clothing, the costume of the Palestinian towns, worn by these Canaanites ; observe 
also the metal weapons which they carry. The manufacture of these things 
created industries which had begun to flourish among the towns in Syria and 
Palestine by this time. Notice also the type of face, with the prominent nose, 
which shows that Hittite blood was already mixed with the Semitic blood of 
these early dwellers in Palestine (Fig. 146). 

1 On the origin of the name see § 379. 
197 



289. Situ- 
ation and 
extent of 
Palestine, the 
home of the 
Hebrews 



290. Char- 
acter of 
Palestine 



198 Ancient Times 

productive. The entire land is without summer rains and is 
dependent upon a rainy season (the winter) for moisture. 
There is no opportunity for irrigation, and the harvest is 
therefore scantier than in lands enjoying summer rains. Only 




Fig. 121. Ancient Egyptian Painting of a Brickyard with 

Asiatic Captives engaged in Brickmaking (Fifteenth 

Century b.c.) 

The Hebrew slaves working in the Egyptian brickyards (see Exod. i, 
14 and V, 6-19) must have looked like this when Moses led them forth 
into Asia (§ 293). At the left below, the soft clay is being mixed in 
two piles; one laborer helps load a basket of clay on the shoulder of 
another, who carries it to the brick-molder, at the right above. Here a 
laborer empties the clay from his basket, while the molder before him 
fills with clay an oblong box, which is the mold. He has already 
finished three bricks. At the left above, a molder spreads out the 
soft bricks with spaces between for the circulation of air to make 
them dry quickly in the sun. The overseer, staff in hand, sits in the 
upper right-hand corner, and below him we see a workman carrying 
away the dried bricks, hanging from a yoke on his shoulders. Thus 
were made the bricks used for thousands of years for the buildings 
forming so large a part of the cities of the ancient world, from the 
Orient to Athens and Rome (§ 548) 

the northern end of the Palestinian coast has any. harbors 
(Fig. 159)5 but these were early seized by the Phoenicians 
(Sections 39-40). Palestine thus remained cut off from the 
sea. In natural resources it was too poor (Fig. 129) ever to 
develop prosperity or political power like its great civilized 
neighbors on the Nile and Euphrates or in Syria and Phoenicia. 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 199 

Here at the west end of the Fertile Crescent, as at the east 291. Mixture 
endj the Semitic nomads from the desert-bay (reread Section 13) civilization 
mingled with the dwellers in the northern mountains. The Jj^fQ^i^the^ 
Northerners, chiefly Hittites from Asia Minor (§§ 35 1-360), left Hebrews 

. r -r^ 1 . ,-r^i • •!• possessed it ; 

their mark on the Semites of Palestme. The promment aquihne Babylonian 
nose, still considered to be the mark of the Semite, especially ^'^^^^'^S 
of the Jew, was really a feature belonging to the (non-Semitic) 
Hittites, who intermarried with the people of Palestine and 
gave them this Hittite type of face (see Fig. 146). Strange 
faces from many a foreign clime therefore crowded the market 
places of Palestine, amid a babel of various dialects. Here 
the rich jewelry, bronze dishes, and ivory furniture of the Nile 
craftsmen (Fig. 73) mingled with the pottery of the JEgean 
Islands (Fig. 136), the red earthenware of the Hittites, or the 
gay woolens of Babylonia. The donkeys (headpiece, p. 197), 
which lifted their complaining voices above the hubbub of the 
market, had grazed along the shores of both Nile and Euphrates, 
and their masters had trafficked beneath the Babylonian temple 
towers (Fig. 104) as well as under the shadow of the Theban 
obelisks (Fig. 65). We recall how traffic with Babylonia had 
taught these Western Semites to write the cuneiform hand 
(§ 187). Palestine was the entrance to the bridge between 
Asia and Africa — a middle ground where the civilizations of 
Egypt and Babylonia, of Phoenicia, the ^gean, and Asia Minor, 
all represented by their wares, met and commingled as they did 
nowhere else in the early Orient. 

Just as the merchandise of the surrounding nations met in 292. Pales- 
peaceful competition in the markets of Palestine, so the armies gj-gat battle- 
of these nations also met there in battle. The situation of fa^r^Orknt^ 
Palestine, between its powerful neighbors on the Nile and on the 
Euphrates, made it the battleground where these great nations 
fought for many centuries (§ 213). Over and over again un- 
happy Palestine went through the experience of little Belgium 
in the conflict between Germany and France in 19 14. Egypt 
held Palestine for many centuries (§ 108). Later we recall 



2O0 



Ancient Times 



how Assyria conquered it (§§ 212-214). Chaldea also held 
it (§ 234), and we finally found it in the power of Persia 
(§ 263). When, therefore, the Hebrews originally took pos- 
session of the land, there was little prospect that they would 
ever long enjoy freedom from foreign oppression. 



293. The 

Hebrew 
invasion of 
Palestine 
(about, 
1200 B.C.) 







Section 28. The Settlement of the Hebrews in 
Palestine and the United Hebrew Kingdom 

The Hebrews were all originally men of the Arabian desert, 
wandering with their flocks and herds and slowly drifting over 

into their final 



Pales- 



home in 
tine (read §§133- 
141). For two 
centuries (about 
1400 to 1200 
B.C.) their move- 
ment from the 
desert into Pal- 
estine continued. 
Another group of 
their tribes had 
been slaves in 
Egypt, where they 
had suffered much 
hardship (Figs. 
121 and 122) 
under a cruel Pha- 
raoh (Fig. 123). 
They w^re successfully led out of Egypt by their heroic leader 
Moses, a great national hero whose achievements they never 
forgot. On entering Palestine the Hebrews found the Ca- 
naanites (§ 141) already dwelling there in flourishing towns 
protected by massive walls (Figs. 124 and 125). The Hebrews 



Fig. 122. Brick 
thought to have 
BREW Slaves in 



Storehouse Rooms 

BEEN built by He- 

Egypt (Thirteenth 



Century b.c.) 

This storehouse is in the city of Pithom on 
the east of the Nile Delta. It was built by 
Ramses II, whose face we see in Fig. 123. 
The making of the brick for such buildings 
may be seen in Fig. 121 



The Hebreivs and the Decline of the Orient 201 



were able to capture only the weaker Canaanite towns (Fig. 126). 
As the rough Hebrew shepherds looked across the highlands of 
north Palestine they beheld their kindred scattered over far- 
stretching hilltops, with the frowning walls of many a Canaanite 
stronghold (Fig. 
127) rising between 
them. Even Jeru- 
salem in the Judean 
highlands (Fig. 127) 
for centuries defied 
the assaults of the 
Hebrew invaders 
(Fig. 126). 

Let us remember 
that these uncon- 
quered Canaanite 
towns now possessed 
a civilization fifteen 
hundred years old, 
with comfortable 
houses, government, 
industries, trade, writ- 
ing, and religion — 
a civilization which 
the rude Hebrew 
shepherds were soon 
adopting ; for they 
could not avoid inter- 
course with the un- 
subdued Canaanite 

towns, as trade and business threw them together. This min- 
gling with the Canaanites produced the most profound changes 
in the life of the Hebrews. Most of them left their tents (head- 
piece, p. 100) and began to build houses like those of the Ca- 
naanites (Fig. 125) ; they put off the rough sheepskin they had 




294. The 

Hebrews 
adopt 
Canaanite 
civilization 
and acquire 
Hittite type 
of face 



/ 



Fig. 1 23. Mummy of Ramses II, commonly 

THOUGHT TO BE THE PhARAOH WHO EN- 
SLAVED THE Hebrews 

See § 125 for account of the preservation of 
the bodies of the kings of Egypt. Ramses II 
died about 1225 B.C., that is, over thirty-one hun- 
dred years ago. He was about ninety years old. 
It was probably he who treated the Hebrews 
so cruelly, as told in Exodus v, 6-19 (§ 293) 



202 



Ancient Times 



295. Differ- 
ences in life 
and customs 
among the 
Hebrews ; 
antagonism 
between ' 
North and 
South 



worn in the desert, and they put on fine Canaanite raiment of 
gayly colored woven wool (headpiece, p. 197). After a time, in 
appearance, occupation, and manner of life the Hebrews were 
not to be distinguished from the Canaanites among whom they 
now lived. In short, they had adopted Canaanite civilization, 
just as newly arrived immigrants among us soon adopt our 
clothing and our ways. Indeed, as the Hebrews intermarried 
with the Canaanites, they received enough Hittite blood to 
acquire the Hittite type of face (Fig. 146). 

These changes did not proceed everywhere at the same rate. 
The Hebrews in the less fertile South were more attached to 
the old desert life, so that many would not give up the tent 




-^->:^^' ^^4^ 



Fig. 1 24. The Long Mound of the Ancient City of Jericho 

The walls of the city and the ruins of the houses (Fig. 125) are buried 

under the rubbish which makes up this mound. ^Many of the ancient 

cities of Palestine, as old as 2500 B.C., are now such m^ounds as this 



296. Foun- 
dation of the 
Hebrew 
nation ; Saul, 
the first king 



and the old freedom of the desert. The wandering life of the 
nomad shepherd on the Judean hills could still be seen from 
the walls of Jerusalem. Here, then, were two differing modes 
of life among the Hebrews : in the fertile North of Palestine 
we find the settled life of the town and its outlying fields ; in 
the South, on the other hand, the wandering life of the nomad 
still went on. For centuries this difference formed an impor 
tant cause of discord among the Hebrews. 

Fortunately for the Hebrews, Egypt was now in a state of 
decline (iioo B.C.) (§ 124) and Assyria had not yet conquered 
the West (§ 208). But a Mediterranean people called Philistines 
(headpiece, p. 252, and § 379) had at this time migrated from 
the island of Crete to the sea plain at the southwest comer of 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 203 

Palestine (see map, p. 196). By 1 100 b.c. these Philistines formed 
a highly civilized and warlike nation, or group of city-kingdoms. 
Hard pressed by the Philistines, the Hebrew local leaders, or 
judges, as they were called, found it hard to unite their people 
into a nation. About a generation before the year 1000 B.C., 








Fig. 125. Ruins of the Houses of Ancient Jericho 

Only the stone foundations of these houses are preserved. The walls 
were of sun-baked brick, and the rains of over three thousand years have 
washed them away; for these houses date from about 1500 B.C., and 
in them lived the Canaanites, whom the Hebrews found in Palestine 
(§ 293). Here we find the pottery jars, glass, and dishes of the house- 
hold; also things carved of stone, like seals, amulets, and ornaments 
of metal. The industries of these people were clearly learned from 
Egypt (§ 291). Cuneiform tablets of clay found in these ruins show 
the influence of Babylonian business (§§ 187, and 291) 



however, a popular leader named Saul succeeded in gaining for 
himself the office of king. The new king was a Southerner who 
still loved the old nomad customs ; he had no fixed abode and 
dwelt in a tent. In the fierce struggle to thrust back the Phihs- 
tines, Saul was disastrously defeated, and, seeing the rout of his 
army, he fell upon his own sword and so died (about 1000 B.C.). 



204 



Ancient Times 



297. David 
(about 1000- 

960 B.C.) 




In a few years the 
ability of David, one 
of Saul's daring men 
at arms whom he had 
unjustly outlawed, won 
the support of the 
South. Seeing the im- 
portance of possess- 
ing a strong castle, 
the sagacious David 
selected the ancient 
fortress on the steep 
hill of Jerusalem (Fig. 
127), hitherto held by 
the Canaanites. He 
therefore gained pos- 
session of it and made 
it his residence. Here 
he ruled for a time 
as king of the South, 
till his valor as a sol- 
dier and his victories 
on all sides won him 
also the support of 
the more prosperous 
North. The Philis- 
tines were now beaten 



Fig. 126. Letter of the Egyptian 
Governor of Jerusalem telling of 
the Invasion of Palestine by the 
Hebrews (Fourteenth Century b.c.) 

The letter is a clay tablet written in Baby- 
lonian cuneiform by the terrified Egyptian 
governor, who begs the Pharaoh for help 
[Hebrews] are taking the cities of the king, 
king, my lord ; all are lost." The king of Egypt to whom he wrote 
thus was Ikhnaton, at a time when the Egyptian Empire in Asia was 
falling to pieces (§ 122). This letter is one of a group of three hun- 
dred such cuneiform letters found in one of the rooms of Ikhnaton's 
palace at Tell el-Amarna (or Amarna), and called the Amarna Letters 
the oldest body of international correspondence in the world. We find 
in them the earliest mention of the Hebrews (cf. Fig. 92 and see § 187) 



saying : " The Khabiru 
No ruler remains to the 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 205 

off, and David ruled over an extensive Hebrew kingdom. He 
enjoyed a long and prosperous reign, and his people never forgot 
his heroic deeds as a warrior nor his skill as a poet and singer. 




Fig. 127. Glimpse of the Walls of Jerusalem from the 
Low Valley below the Old Canaanite Fortress 

The houses on the right of this valley belong to the modern village of 
Siloam ; but on the left we see the high walls of Jerusalem where they 
pass around the ancient place of the temple. Here above us at the left, 
looking down several hundred feet into this valley, was the Canaanite 
fortress captured by David (§ 297), but it long ago fell into ruin and 
disappeared. The wall we see here is of a much later date. The Ca- 
naanite fortress must have looked very much like the castle of David's 
northern neighbor, the king of Samal (Fig. 97). (Drawn from photo- 
graph by Underwood & Underwood) 

David's son, Solomon, became, like Hammurapi, one of the 
leading merchants of the East. He trafficked in horses and 
launched a trading fleet in partnership with Hiram, the Phoenician 



2o6 Ancient Times 

298. Solo- king of Tyre. His wealth enabled him to marry a daughter 
S|y"sion of ^ of the king of Egypt, and he delighted in oriental luxury and 
his kingdom display. He removed the portable tent which the Hebrews had 
930 B.C.) thus far used as a temple, and with the aid of his friend Hiram, 

who loaned him skilled Phoenician workmen, he built a rich 
temple of stone in Jerusalem (Fig. 127). Such splendor de- 
manded a great income, and to secure it he weighed down 
the Hebrews with heavy taxes. The resulting discontent of his 
subjects was so great that, under Solomon's son, the Northern 
tribes withdrew from the nation and set up a king of their 
own. Thus the Hebrew nation was divided into two kingdoms 
before it was a century old. 

Section 29. The Two Hebrew Kingdoms 

299. The There was much hard feeling between the two Hebrew king- 
twee^nthetwo doms, and sometimes fighting. Israel,. as we call the Northern 
idn^dmiis kingdom, was rich and prosperous ; its market places were filled 

with industry and commerce ; its fertile fields produced plenti- 
• ful crops. Israel displayed the wealth and success of town 

life. On the other hand, Judah, " the Southern kingdom, was 
poor; her land was meager (Fig. 128); besides Jerusalem she 
had no large towns ; many of the people still wandered with 
their flocks. 

300. The These two methods of life came into conflict in many ways, 
contrast upon but especially in religion. Every old Canaanite town had for 
religion centuries its local town god, called its '' baal," or " lord." The 

Hebrew townsmen found it very natural to worship the gods 
of their neighbors, the Canaanite townsmen. They were thus 
unfaithful to their old Hebrew God Yahveh (or Jehovah).^ To 
some devout Hebrews, therefore, and especially to those in the 
South, the Canaanite gods seemed to be the protectors of the 
wealthy class in the towns, with their luxury and injustice to 

1 The Hebrews pronounced the name of their God " Yahveh." The pro- 
nunciation " Jehovah " began less than six hundred years ago and was due to a 
misunderstanding of the pronunciation of the word " Yahveh." 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 207 

the poor, while Yahveh appeared as the guardian of the sim- 
pler shepherd life of the desert, and therefore the protector of 
the poor and needy. 

There was growing reason for such beliefs. Less than a cen- 301. Elijah 
tury after the separation of the two kingdoms, Ahab, a king of fe^nce^ofThe 
the North, had had Naboth, one of his subjects, killed in order o!.^5^i^^fs 

•* of Yahveh 

to seize "a vineyard belonging to Naboth, and thus to enlarge 




-:fe^ 







Fig. 128. The Stony and Unproductive Fields of Judah 

Judah is largely made up of sterile ridges like this in the background. 
Note the scantiness of the growing grain in the foreground 



his palace gardens. Reports of such wrongs stirred the anger 
of Elijah, a Hebrew of old nomad habits, who lived in the 
desert east of the Jordan.. Still wearing his desert sheepskin, 
he suddenly appeared before Ahab in the ill-gotten vineyard 
and denounced the king for his seizure of it. Thus this un- 
couth figure from the desert proclaimed war between Yahveh 
and the injustice of town life. Elijah's followers finally slew not 
only the entire Northern royal family, but also the priests of 



2o8 



Ancient Times 



302. The 

earliest 
historical 
writing 
among the 
Hebrews 
(about 
850 B.C.) ; 
the Unknown 
Historian 



303. Amos, 
and the 
peaceful 
methods of 
reformer and 
prophet 
(750 B.C.) 



the Canaanite gods (or baals). Such violent methods, however, 
could not accomplish lasting results. They were the methods 
of Hebrews who thought of Yahveh only as a war god. 

Besides such violent leaders as these, there were already 
among the Hebrews more peaceable men, who also chafed 
under the injustice of town life and turned fondly back to the 
grand old days of their shepherd wanderings, out on the broad 
reaches of the desert, where no man *' ground the faces of the 
poor." It was a gifted Hebrew of this kind who now put 
together a simple narrative history of the Hebrew forefathers 
— a glorified picture of their shepherd life. While his original 
work has perished, much of it still survives in the immortal 
tales of the Hebrew patriarchs, of Abraham and Isaac, of 
Jacob and Joseph. These tales belong among the noblest liter- 
ature which has survived to us from the past (see Gen. xxiv, 
xxvii, xxviii, xxxvii, xxxix-xlvii, 12). They are the earliest ex- 
ample of historical writing in prose which we possess among 
any people, and their nameless author, whom we may call the 
Unknown Historian, is the earliest historian whom we have 
found in the ancient world.'^ 

Another century passed, and about 750 B.C. another dingy 
figure in sheepskin appeared in the streets of Bethel, where the 
Northern kingdom had an important temple. It was Amos, a 
shepherd from the hills of Judah in the south. In the solitudes 
of his shepherd life Amos had learned to see in Yahveh far 
more than a war god of the desert. To him Yahveh seemed to 
be a God of fatherly kindness, not demanding bloody butchery 
like that practiced by Elijah's followers (§ 301), but neverthe- 
less a God who rebuked the selfish and oppressive wealthy class 
in the towns. The simple shepherd could not resist the inner 
impulse to journey to the Northern kingdom and proclaim to 
the luxurious townsmen there the evils of their manner of life. 



1 Unfortunately the Hebrews themselves early lost all knowledge of his name 
and identity, and finally associated the surviving fragments of his work with the' 
name of Moses. 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Onefit 209 

We can imagine the surprise of the prosperous Northern 304. Amos 
Hebrews as they suddenly met this rude shepherd figure clad th"cormpt 
in sheepskin, standing at a street corner addressing a crowd living of the 
of townsmen. He was denouncing their showy clothes, fine kingdom 
houses, beautiful furniture (Fig. 100), and above all their cor- 
rupt lives and hard-heartedness toward the poor, whose lands 
they seized for debt and whose labor they gained by enslaving 
their fellow Hebrews. These things had been unknown in the 
desert. By such addresses as these Amos, of course, endangered 
his life, but he thus became the first social reformer in Asia. 
We apply the term '' prophet " to such great Hebrew leaders 
who pointed out the ^way~l:oward unselfish living, brotherly 
kindness, and a higher type of religion. 

While all this had been going on the Hebrews had been 305. The 
learning to write, as so many of their nomad predecessors learn^to'write 
on the Fertile Crescent had done before them (§§ 167 and 
201). They were now abandoning the clay tablet (Fig. 126), 
and they wrote on papyrus with the Egyptian pen and ink 
(Fig. 1 01). They borrowed their alphabet from the Phoeni- 
cian and Aramaean merchants (§ 205). There is no doubt 
that our earliest Hebrew historian's admiration for the nomad 
life (§ 302), although the nomads were without writing, did 
not prevent him from making use of this new and great con- 
venience of tow7i life — that is, writing. The rolls containing 
the Unknown Historian's tales of the patriarchs, or bearing 
the teachings of such men as Amos, were the first books 
which the Hebrews produced — their first literature. Such 
rolls of papyrus were exactly like those which had been in use 
in Egypt for over two thousand years. The discovery of the 
household papers of a Hebrew community in Egypt has shown 
us just how such a page of Hebrew or Aramaic writing looked 
(Fig. 131). But literature remained the only art the Hebrews 
possessed. They had no painting, sculpture, or architecture, 
and if they needed these things they borrowed from their great 
neighbors, Egypt, Phoenicia (§ 398), Damascus, or Assyria. 



2IO 



Ancient Times 



Section ^30. The Destruction of the Hebrew 
Kingdoms by Assyria and Chaldea 



306. De- 
struction of 
the Northern 
kingdom 
by Assyria 
(722 B.C.) 



307. Yahveh, 
the God of 
Palestine, in 
conflict with 
Assur, god 
of Assyria 



308. Isaiah 
and the siege 
of Jerusalem 
by Sennach- 
erib 



While the Hebrews had been deeply stirred by their own 
conflicts at ho?ne, such men as Amos had also perceived and 
proclaimed the dangers coming from abroad, from beyond the 
borders of Palestine, especially Assyria. Amos indeed announced 
the coming destruction of the Northern kingdom by Assyria, 
because of the evil lives of the people. As Amos had foreseen, 
Assyria first swept away Damascus (§§ 208 and 2 1 2). The king- 
dom of Israel, thus left exposed, was the next victim, and Samaria, 
its capital, was captured by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. (§ 213). 
Many of the unhappy Northern Hebrews were carried away as 
captives, and the Northern nation, called Israel, was destroyed 
after having existed for a little over two centuries. 

The national hopes of the Hebrews were now centered in 
the helpless little kingdom of Judah, which struggled on for 
over a century and a quarter more, in the midst of a great 
world conflict, in which Assyria was the unchallenged cham- 
pion. Thus far thoughtful Hebrews had been accustomed to 
think of their God as dwelling and ruling in Palestine only. 
Did he have power also over the vast world arena where all 
the great nations were fighting? But if so, was not Assur 
(Fig. 102), the great god of victorious Assyria, stronger than 
Yahveh, the God of the Hebrews? And many a despairing 
Hebrew, as he looked out over the hills of Palestine, wasted 
by the armies of Assyria (Fig. 129), felt in his heart that 
Assur, the god of the Assyrians, must indeed be stronger than 
Yahveh, God of the Hebrews. 

It was in the midst of somber doubts like these, in the years 
before 700 B.C., that the princely prophet Isaiah, in one great 
oration after another, addressed the multitudes which filled the 
streets of Jerusalem. The hosts of Sennacherib were at the 
gates (Fig. 130), and the terrified throngs in the city were 
expecting at any moment to hear the thunder of the great 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 2 1 1 



Assyrian war engines (headpiece, p. 140) battering down the 
crumbling walls of their city, as they had crushed the walls of 
Damascus and Samaria. Then the bold words of the dauntless 
Isaiah lifted them from despair like the triumphant call of a 
trumpet. He told them that Yahveh ruled a kingdom far larger 







bArt. Mfe^'ii"'i^5 



^-1 s 

3^2:. :>_^ KTM' T-^ 1 ^ J 

^fVn»'Til*;|p4«6i^^^ i^jii'" 111 'a; 

Fig. 129. Hebrews paying Tribute to the King of Assyria 

The Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III, stands at the left, followed by two 
attendants. Before him hovers the winged sun-disk {§ 210 and Fig. 102). 
His appearance in the middle of the ninth century B.C., campaigning in 
the West against Damascus (§ 208), so frightened the Hebrews of the 
Northern kingdom that their king (Jehu) sent gifts to the Assyrian king 
by an envoy whom we see here bowing down at the king's feet. Behind 
the Hebrew envoy are two Assyrian officers who are leading up a hne of 
thirteen Hebrews (not included here) bearing gifts of silver, gold, etc. 
Although it was over a century before the Assyrian kings succeeded in 
capturing Damascus (§§208, 212, and 213), this incident showed the 
Hebrews what they might expect. The scene is carved on a black stone 
shaft set up by the Assyrian king in his palace on the Tigris, where the 
modern excavators found it. It is now in the British Museum 

than Palestine — that He controlled the great world arena, 
where Ife, and not Assur, was the triumphant champion. If the 
Assyrians had wasted and plundered Palestine, it was because 
they were but the lash in the hands of Yahveh, who was using 
them as a scourge to punish Judah for its wrongdoing. Isaiah 
made this all clear to the people by vivid oriental illustrations, 
calling Assyria the " rod " of Yahveh's anger, scourging the 
Hebrews (Isa. x, 5-15). 



212 



Anciejit Times 



309. De- 
struction of 
Sennacherib's 
army and 
vindication 
of Isaiah's 
teaching 



310. De- 
struction of 
the Southern 
kingdom by 
Chaldea 
(586 B.C.) 



.V , ./If Si. ' ■'^""'"fj^' *(!,«^''-' 



A\ 















Fig. 130. Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 
RECEIVING Captive Hebrews 

The artist, endeavoring to sketch the stony 
hills of southern Palestine, has made the sur- 
face of the ground look like scales. We see the 
Assyrian king seated on a throne, while ad- 
vancing up the hill is a group of Assyrian 
soldiers headed by the grand vizier, who stands 
before the king, announcing the coming of the 
Hebrew captives. At the left, behind the sol- 
diers, appear three of the captives kneeling on 
the ground and lifting up their hands to appeal 
for mercy. The inscription over the vizier's 
head reads, " Sennacherib, king of the world, 
king of Assyria, seated himself upon a throne, 
while the captives of Lachish passed before 
him." Lachish was a small town of southern 
Palestine. Sennacherib captured many such 
Hebrew towns and carried off over two hun- 
dred thousand captives; but even his own rec- 
ords make no claim that he captured Jerusalem 
(cf. § 309). The scene is engraved on a large 
slab of alabaster, which with many others 
adorned the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh 



Thus v^^hile * the 
people were mo- 
mentarily expecting 
the destruction of 
Jerusalem, Isaiah 
undauntedly pro- 
claimed a great and 
glorious future for 
the Hebrews and 
speedy disaster for 
the Assyrians. When 
at length a pestilence 
from the marshes 
of the eastern Nile 
Delta swept away 
the army of Sen- 
nacherib and saved 
Jerusalem, it seemed 
to the Hebrews the 
destroying angel of 
Yahveh who had 
smitten the Assyrian 
host (see 2 Kings 
xix, 32-37). Some 
of the Hebrews then 
began to see that 
they must think of 
Yahveh as ruling a 
larger world than 
Palestine. 

About a century 
after the deliverance 
from Sennacherib 
they beheld and 
rejoiced over the 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 213 

destruction of Nineveh (606 B.C., § 231), and they fondly 
hoped that the fall of Assyria meant final deliverance from 
foreign oppression. But they had only exchanged one foreign 
lord for another, and Chaldea followed Assyria in control of 
Palestine (§ 233). Then their unwillingness to submit brought 
upon the Hebrews of Judah the same fate which their kindred 
of Israel had suffered (§ 306). In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, 
the Chaldean king, destroyed Jerusalem and carried away the 
people to exile in Babylonia. The Hebrew nation both North 
and South was thus wiped out, after having existed about 
four and a half centuries since the crowning of Saul. 

Section 31, The Hebrews in Exile and their 
Deliverance by the Persians 

Some of the fugitives fled to Egypt. Among them was the S"- Jere- 

. miah and a 

melancholy prophet Jeremiah, who had foreseen the commg temple of the 

destruction of Jerusalem with its temple of Yahveh. He strove jn^E^w 

to teach his people that each must regard his own heart as a 

temple of Yahveh, which would endure long after His temple 

in Jerusalem had crashed into ruin. Recent excavation has 

restored to us the actual papers of a colony of Hebrews in 

Eg}'pt at Elephantine (see map, p. -^d^ and Fig. 211). These 

papers (Fig. 131) show that the exiled Hebrews in Egypt had 

not yet reached Jeremiah's ideal of a temple of Yahveh in 

every human heart ; for they had built a temple of their own, 

in which they carried on the worship of Yahveh. 

Similarly, the Hebrew exiles in Babylonia were not yet con- 312. Doubts 
vinced of the truth of the teaching they had heard from their Hebrews in 
great leaders the prophets. There were at first only grief and fnd^he"great 
unanswered questionins^s, of which the echo still reaches us : Unknown 

^ ^ ' Prophet of 

By the rivers of Babylon, 
There we sat down, yea we wept, 
When we remembered Zion [Jerusalem]. 
Upon the willows in the midst thereof 



313' Mono- 
theism 
reached by 
the Hebrews 
in exile 



214 Ancient Times 

We hanged up our harps. 

How shall we sing Yahveh's song 
In a strange land ? (Psalms 137, 1-4) 

Had they not left Yahveh behind in Palestine? And then 
arose an unknown voice ^ among the Hebrew exiles, and out 
of centuries of affliction gave them the answer. In a series of 
triumphant speeches this greatest of the Hebrews declared 
Yahveh to be the creator and sole God of the universe. He 
explained to his fellow exiles that suffering and affliction were 
the best possible training and discipline to prepare a people 
for service. He announced therefore that by afflicting them 
Yahveh was only preparing His suffering people for service to 
the world and that He would yet restore them and enable them 
to fulfil a great mission to all men. He greeted the sudden rise 
of Cyrus the Persian (§ 258) with joy. All kings, he taught, 
were but instruments in the hands of Yahveh, who through 
the Persians would overthrow the Chaldeans and return the 
Hebrews to their land. 

Thus had the Hebrew vision of Yahveh slowly grown from 
the days of their nomad life, when they had seen him only as a 
fierce tribal war god, having no power beyond the corner of the 
desert where they lived, until now when they had come to see 
that He was a kindly father and a righteous ruler of all the earth. 
This was monotheism (§ 120), a belief which made Yahveh the 
sole God. They had reached it only through a long development, 
which brought them suffering and disaster — a discipline lasting 
many centuries. Just as the individual to-day, especially a young 
person, learns from his mistakes, and develops character as he 
suffers for his own errors, so the suffering. Hebrews had out- 
grown many imperfect ideas. They thus illustrated the words 
of the greatest of Hebrew teachers, " First the blade, then the 

1 This unknown voice was that of a great poet-preacher, a prophet of the exile, 
whose name has been lost. But his addresses to his fellow exiles are preserved 
in sixteen chapters imbedded in the Old Testament book now bearing the name 
of Isaiah (chaps, xl-lv, inclusive). We may call him the Unknown Prophet. 



sc?: 





*if-?i ^Hi'^'''?.-'?*'^ 7}^w* «ini^i ^^'^^y-^ /"^"^^ ^'^^'''^ -^^"^^^ -^^'^ )*^^ 

MMk^^m aM^^^s___^ ^__ ' ■ 7^^^^ 

Fig. 131. Aramaic Letter written by a Hebrew Community 

IN Egypt to the Persian Governor of Palestine in the 

Fifth Century b.c. 

This remarkable letter was discovered in 1907, with many other similar 
papers, lying in the ruins of the town of Elephantine (Fig. 211) in Upper 
Egypt. Here lived a community of some six or seven hundred Hebrews, 
some of whom had probably migrated to Egypt before Nebuchadnezzar 
destroyed Jerusalem (§ 310). They had built a temple to Yahveh 
(Jehovah) on the banks of the Nile. This letter tells how the jealous 
Egyptian priests formed a mob, burned the Hebrew temple, and plun- 
dered it of its gold and silver vessels. Thereupon the whole Hebrew 
community sat down in mourning, and for three years they tried in vain 
to secure permission to rebuild. Then in 407 B.C. their leaders wrote 
this letter to Bagoas, the Persian governor of Palestine, begging him to 
use his influence with the Persian governor of Egypt, to permit them 
to rebuild their ruined temple. They refer by name to persons in 
Palestine who are also mentioned in the Old Testament. The letter is 
written with pen and ink on papyrus, in the Aramaic language (§ 205 
and Fig. loi), which was now rapidly displacing Hebrew (§ 207). This 
writing used the Phoenician letters long before adopted throughout 
Western Asia (§ 205). This beautifully written sheet of papyrus, about 
10 by 13 inches, bearing the same letters which the Hebrews used 
(§ 305)1 shows us exactly how a page of their ancient writings in the 
Old Testament looked. They read the stories of Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, and Joseph (§ 305) from pages like this 

215 



2l6 



Ancient Times 



314. Resto- 
ration of 
the exiled 
Hebrews by 
the Persian 
kings 



315. Jewish 
law and Ju- 
daism ; the 
restored 
Jewish state 
a church 



316. Editing 
of Hebrew 
writings : the 
Prophets and 
the Psalms 



ear, then the full grain in the ear." ^ By this rich and wonder- 
ful experience of the Hebrews in religious progress, the whole 
world was yet to profit. 

When the victorious Cyrus entered Babylon (§ 261) the 
Hebrew exiles there greeted him as their deliverer. His 
triumph gave the Hebrews a Persian ruler. With great 
humanity the Persian kings allowed the exiles to return to 
their native land. Some had prospered in Babylonia and did 
not care to return. But at different times enough of them went 
back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city on a very modest scale 
and to restore the temple. 

The authority given by the Persian government to the 
returned Hebrew leaders enabled them to issue a code of 
religious law,'^ much of which had come down from earlier 
days. The religion thus organized by the returned Hebrew 
leaders, we now call Judaism, the religion of the Jews. Under 
it the old Hebrew kingship was not revived. In its place a 
High Priest at Jerusalem became the ruler of the Jews. The 
Jewish state was thus a religions organization, a church with a 
priest at its head. 

The leaders of this church devoted themselves to the study of 
the ancient writings of their race still surviving in their hands. 
Many of the old writings had been lost. They arranged and 
copied the orations and addresses of the prophets, the tales 
of the Unknown Historian (§ 302), and all the old Hebrew 
writings they possessed. As time went on, the service of the 
restored temple required songs, and they produced a remark- 
able book of a hundred and fifty religious songs, the hymn 
book of the second temple, known to us as the Book of 
Psalms. For a long time, indeed for centuries, these various 
Hebrew books, like the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and 
others, circulated in separate rolls, and it did not occur to 
anyone to put them together to form one book. 



1 The words of Jesus ; see Mark iv, 28. 

2 It consisted of the first five books of the Bible. 



The Hebrews and the Decline of the Orient 217 

It was not until Christian times that the Jewish leaders put 317. The 
all these old writings of their fathers together to form one mentand" 
book. Printed in Hebrew, as they were originally written, JJ^^'^f^ew 
they form the Bible of the Jews at the present day. These religion 
Hebrew writings have also become a sacred book of the 
Christian nations. When translated into English, it is called 
the Old Testament. It forms to-day the most precious legacy 
which we have inherited from the older Orient before the 
coming of Christ (§ 1067). It tells the story of how a rude 
shepherd folk issued from the wilds of the Arabian desert, to 
live in Palestine and to go through experiences there which 
made them the religious teachers of the civilized world. And 
we should further remember, that, crowning all their history, ^ 
there came forth from them in due time the founder of the , 
Christian religion (§1067). One of the most important things 
that we owe to the Persians, therefore, was their restoration / \ 
of the Hebrews to Palestine. The Persians thus saved and , 
aided in transmitting to us the great legacy from Hebrew life/ 
which we have in the Old Testament, and in the life of the* 
Founder of Christianity. 

Section 32. Decline of Oriental Leadership; 
Estimate of Oriental Civilization 

Persia was the last of the great oriental powers and, as its 318. Decline 

decline continued after 400 B.C., it gave way to the Greeks, and end of 

another Indo-European people who arose not in Asia but in of theandeS 

Europe, to which we must now e^o. Before we do so, however, world (fifth 

^ ' ... to fourth cen- 

let us look back over oriental civilization for a moment and turies b.c.) 

review „what it accomplished in over thirty-five hundred years. 

We recall how it passed from the discovery of metal and the 

invention of writing, through three great chapters of history 

on the Nile (about 3000 to 1150 B.C.), and three more on 

the Two Rivers (thirty-first century to 539 B.C.). When the 

six great chapters were ended, the East finally fell under the 



2i8 Ancient Times 

rule of the incoming Indo-Europeans, led by the Persians 
(from 539 B.C. on). 

319. The What did the Ancient Orient really accomplish for the human 
oahTodent^ race in the course of this long career .? It gave the world the 
inventions ^j-g^ highly developed practical arts, like metal work,' weaving, 

glassmaking, paper-making, and many other similar industries. 
To distribute the products of these industries among other 
peoples and carry on commerce, it built the earliest seagoing 
ships. It first was able to move great weights and undertake 
large building enterprises — large even for us of to-day. The 
early Orient therefore brought forth a great group of inventions 
surpassed in importance only by those of the modern world. 

320. The The Orient also gave us the earliest architecture in stone 
ofthTorient^ masonry, the colonnade, the arch, and the tower or spire. It 
earliest produced the earliest refined sculpture, from the wonderful 

architecture, ^ ^ ' 

sculpture, portrait figures and colossal statues of Egypt to the exquisite 

alphabet, ^ r ^ -v^ ^ ^ • t •• 11 1- 

literature, seals of early Babylonia. It gave us wntmg and the earliest 
science'^' alphabet. In literature it brought forth the earliest known 
government tales in narrative prose, poems, historical works, social dis- 
cussions, and even a drama. It gave us the calendar we still 
use. It made a beginning in mathematics, astronomy, and 
medicine. It first produced government on a large scale, 
whether of a single great nation or of an empire made up 
of a group of nations. 

321. The Finally, in religion the East developed the earliest belief in 
of the Orient: ^ sole God and his fatherly care for all men, and it laid the 
religion foundations of a religious life from which came forth the 

founder of the leading religion of the civilized world to-day. 
For these things, accomplished — most of them — while Europe 
was still undeveloped, our debt to the Orient is enormous. 

Let us see, however, if there were not some important 
things which the East had not yet gained. The East had 
always accepted as a matter of course the rule of a king, 
and believed that his rule should be kindly and just. It had 
never occurred to anyone there, that the people should have 



The Hebrezvs ajid the Decline of the Orient 219 

a voice in the government, and something to say about how 322. Lack 
they should be governed. No one had ever gained the idea of freSom^^ 
a free citizen, a man feeline^ what we call patriotism, and under democratic 

' ° r- 7 government, 

obligations to vote and to share in the government. Liberty as and citizen- 
we understand it was unknown, and the rule of the people, Ancient 
which we call '' democracy," was never dreamed of in the "^"^ 
Orient. Hence the life of the individual man lacked the 
stimulating responsibilities which come with citizenship. Such 
responsibilities, — like that of thinking about public questions 
and then voting, or of serving as a soldier to defend the 
nation, — these duties quicken the mind and force men to 
action, and they were among the strongest influences in pro- 
ducing great men in Greece and Rome. 

Just as the Orientals accepted the rule of kings without 323. Lack of 
question, so they accepted the rule of the gods. It was a mind from 
tradition which they and their fathers had always accepted. dkiorTlnthe" 
This limited their ideas of the world about them. They thought Ancient 
that every storm was due to the interference of some god, and 
that every eclipse must be the angry act of a god or demon. 
Hence the Orientals made little inquiry into the iiattiral causes 
of such things. In general, then, they suffered from a lack of 
freedom of the mind — a kind of intellectual bondage to religion 
and to old ideas. ^ Under these circumstances natural science 
could not go very far, and religion was much darkened by 
superstition, while art and literature lacked some of their 
greatest sources of stimulus and inspiration. 

There were, therefore, still boundless things for mankind 324- Limita- 

, . •Ill 1 111- tions caused 

to do m government, m thought about the natural world, m by lack of 
gaining deeper views of the wonders and beauties of nature, fi^tellectual 
as well as in art, in literature, and in many other lines. This freedom; 

•^ transition 

future progress was to be made in Europe — that Europe to Europe 

1 Intellectual freedom from tradition was earliest shown by the great Egyp- 
tian king Ikhnaton (§§ 1 18-120) and by the Hebrew prophets (§ 304). Perhaps 
we could also include Zoroaster; but complete intellectual freedom was first 
attained by the Greeks. 



220 Ancient Times 

which we left at the end of our first chapter in the Late Stone 
Age. To Europe, therefore, we must now turn, to follow across 
the eastern Mediterranean the course of rising civilization, as 
it passed from the Orient to our forefathers in early Europe 
four to five thousand years ago. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 27. Describe the situation and character of the land 
of the Hebrews. What can you say about the character of its 
civilization.? Was it likely to offer a tranquil home? Why? 

Section 28. Where was the original home of the Hebrews? 
Where did some of them suffer bondage? What was the result of 
their living among the Canaanites ? Did all the Hebrews adopt the 
settled life? When did they gain their first king and who was he? 
Who was their leading enemy? Describe the reign of David; of 
Solomon. What happened t</the kingdom after Solomon? 

Section 29. What were^ the relations between the two Hebrew 
kingdoms ? Contrast the two kingdoms. How did this contrast 
affect religion? What work did Elijah do? Were there more peace- 
ful men of similar opinions? What can you say of the Unknown 
Historian? Tell the story of Amos. What was the work of a 
prophet? Whence did the Hebrews learn to write and what were 
their first books ? 

Section 30. What danger threatened the Hebrews from abroad? 
What happened to the Northern kingdom? Did the Hebrews be- 
lieve Yahveh to be stronger than Assur ? What can you say of the 
work of Isaiah ? Tell about Sennacherib's campaign against Jerusa- 
lem. Describe the destruction of the Southern kingdom. 

Section 31. What became of the Hebrews of Judah? What 
did they think about Yahveh? Who taught them better and what 
was his teaching ? Did the Hebrews reach their highest ideas about 
Yahveh all at once or were such ideas a gradual growth ? What did 
the returned Hebrews accomplish and by what authority ? 

Section 32. What were the most important things which the 
Orient contributed to human life? Did the people there ever have 
any voice in government ? Were there any citizens ? What was the 
attitude of the Orientals toward the gods ? What was the effect upon 
science ? To what region do we now follow the story of early man ? 




PART III. THE GREEKS 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE DAWN OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE 
OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 

Section 33. The Dawn of Civilization in Europe 

We have already studied the life of earliest man in Europe, 325. Late 
where we followed his progress step by step through some fifty Europe and 
thousand years (Sections 1-4). At that point we were obliged ^^^ future 
to leave him and to pass over from Europe to the Orient, to 
watch there the birth and growth of civilization, while all Europe 
remained in the barbarism of the Late Stone Age. Meantime 

Note. The above drawing shows us the upper part of a stone vase carved 
by a Cretan sculptor. The lower part is lost. The scene depicts a procession of 
Cretan peasants with wooden pitchforks over their shoulders. Among them is a 
chorus of youths with wide-open mouths, lustily singing a harvest song, doubtless 
in honor of the great Earth Mother (§ 357), to whom the peasants believed 
they owed the fertility of the earth. The music is led by a priest with head 
shaven after the Egyptian manner, and he carries upraised before his face a 
sistrum, a musical rattle which came from Egypt. The work is so wonderfully 
carved that we seem to feel the forward motion of the procession. 

221 



222 



Ancient Times 



326. The 

wares dis- 
tributed in 
Late Stone 
Age Europe 
by traders 
from the 
Mediter- 



327. The 
oriental 
source of the 
European 
trader's wares 



328. Europe 
hears of the 
earliest ships 
in the far- 
away Nile 



the towns and villages of the Late Stone Age men had stretched 
far across Europe. The smoke of their settlements rose through 
the forests and high over the lakes and valleys of Switzerland. 
Their roofs dotted the plains and nestled in the inlets of the 
sea, whence they were thickly strewn far up the winding val- 
leys of the rivers into inner Europe. In southeastern Europe 
these men had finally reached the dawn of the Age of Metal, 
about three thousand years before Christ.^ 

The occasional visits of the traders from the coast settle- 
ments along the Mediterranean were welcome events. Such 
a trader's wares were eagerly inspected. Some bargained with 
him for a few decorated jars of pottery, while others pre- 
ferred glittering blue-glaze beads. Great was the interest, 
too, when the trader exhibited a few shining beads or neck 
rings of a strange, heavy, gleaming, reddish substance, so 
beautiful that the villagers trafficked eagerly for them. Most 
desired of all, however, was the dagger (Fig. 132) or ax head 
made of the same unknown substance. Such ax heads, though 
they were much thinner, did not break like stone axes, and 
they could be ground to a better edge than the ground stone 
ax ever gained. 

To the communities of inner Europe, the trader brought also 
vague rumors of the lands from which his wares had come, 
of great peoples who dwelt beyond the wide waters of the 
Mediterranean Sea. Whereupon some of the Late Stone Age 
villagers of Europe perhaps recalled a dim tradition of their 
fathers that grain and flax, and even cattle and sheep, first 
came to them from the same wonderlands of the Far East. 

With rapt attention and awe-struck faces they listened to the 
trader's tales, telling of huge ships (Fig. 41) which made the 
rude European dugouts (Fig. 14) look like tiny chips. They 



1 As we shall see, the Stone Age was only very gradually succeeded by the 
Copper or Bronze Age. Metal reached southeastern Europe not long after 
3000 B.C., but in western and northern Europe it was almost 2000 B.C. before 
the beginning of the Copper Age, which soon became the Bronze Age. 



The Dawn of European Civilization 



223 



had many oarsmen on each side, and mighty fir trunks were 
mounted upright in the craft, carrying huge sheets of linen to 
catch the favoring wind, which thus drove them swiftly from 
land to land. They came out of the many mouths of the vast 
river of Egypt, greater than any river in the world, s'aid the 
trader, and they bore heavy cargoes across the Mediterranean 





Egypt Italy Jura Mountains Denmark 

Fig. 132. Series of Four Dagger Blades of Copper and 
Bronze, showing Influence from Egypt to Denmark 

The lost handles were of wood, bone, or ivory, and the rivet holes for 
fastening them can still be seen. We see in this series how the early 
Egyptian form {A) passed from Egypt across Europe to the Scandina- 
vian countries. The later swords of western Europe were simply the 
old Egyptian dagger elongated 



to the islands and coasts of southeastern Europe or neighbor- 
ing Asia. Thus at the dawn of history, barbarian Europe 
looked across the Mediterranean to the great civilization of 
the Nile, as our own North American Indians fixed their 
wondering eyes on the first Europeans who landed in America, 
and listened to like strange tales of great and distant peoples. 
Slowly Europe learned the use of metal (Fig. 133 and p. 222, 
footnote). In spite of much progress in craftsmanship and a 



224 



Ancient Times 



329. Back- 
wardness of 
the continent 
of Europe 
after receiv- 
ing metal 
(3000- 
2000 B.C.) 



more civilized life in general, the possession of metal did not 
enable the peoples of Europe to advance to a high type of 
civilization. They still remained without writing, without archi- 
tecture in hewn-stone masonry, and without large sailing ships 
for commerce.-^ The failure to make progress in architecture 
beyond such rough stone structures as Stonehenge (Fig. 20) 




Fig. 133. Chariot made by the Mechanics of Bronze Age 

Europe 

This chariot shows us what good woodwork the Bronze Age craftsmen 
could do with bronze tools. It is also an evidence of the far-reaching 
commerce of the Bronze Age ; for it was transported across the 
Mediterranean to Egypt, where it was placed in a cliff-tomb, to be 
used by some wealthy Egyptian after death. There it has survived in 
perfect condition to our day. It is built of elm and ash, with bindings 
of birch fiber. The birch does not grow south of the Mediterranean, 
and hence the chariot must have been made on the north of the 
Mediterranean {§ 329) 



is an illustration of this backwardness of western and northern 
Europe. It clearly proves the failure of Bronze Age Europe 
to bring forth a high civilization, such as we have found in 
the Orient. It was naturally in that portion of Europe nearest 
Egypt that civilization developed most rapidly ; namely, around 
the ^gean Sea. 

1 In this matter the Norsemen were the leaders in northern Europe, and 
seem to have developed considerable skill in navigation by 1500 B.C. 



The Dawn of Etiropean Civilization 225 

Section 34. The ^gean World : the Islands 

The ^gean Sea is like a large lake, almost completely en- 330, The 
circled by the surrounding lands (see map, p. 252). Around its ^f^the^^^ 
west and north sides stretches the mainland of Europe, on the ^gean world 
east is Asia Minor, while the long Island of Crete on the south 
lies like a breakwater, shutting off the Mediterranean from the 
yEgean Sea, From north to south this sea is at no point more 
than four hundred miles in length, while its width varies greatly. 
It is a good deal longer than Lake Michigan, and in places 
over twice as wide. Its coast is deeply indented with many 
bays and harbors, and it is so thickly sprinkled with hundreds 
of islands that it is often possible to sail from one island to 
another in an hour or two. Indeed it is almost impossible to 
cross the ^gean without seeing land all the way, and in a 
number of directions at the same time. Just as Chicago, Mil- 
waukee, and other towns around Lake Michigan are linked 
together by modern steamboats, so we shall see incoming civi- 
lization connecting the shores of the ^gean by sailing ships. 
This sea, therefore, with its islands and the fringe of shores 
around it, formed a region by itself, which we may call the 
^gean world. 

It enjoys a mild and sunny climate ; for this region of the 331. climate 
Mediterranean lies in the belt of rainy winters and dry summers, of the^^gean 
Here and there, along the bold and broken, but picturesque and ^^""^^ 
beautiful, shores (Plate III, p. 276), river valleys and small 
plains descend to the water's edge. Here wheat and barley, 
grapes and olives, may be cultivated without irrigation. Hence 
bread, wine, and oil were the chief food, as among most Medi- 
terranean peoples to this day. Wine is their tea and coffee, and 
oil is their butter. So in the Homeric poems (§§408-411) 
bread and wine are spoken of as the food of all, even of the 
children. The wet season clothes the uplands with rich green 
pastures, where the shepherds may feed the flocks which dot 
the hillsides far and near.. Few regions of the world are 



226 Ancient Times 

better suited to be the home of happy and prosperous com- 
munities, grateful to the gods for all their plentiful gifts by- 
land and sea. 

332. The A map of the Mediterranean (p. 676) shows us that the 
andlS^near- ^gean world is the region where Europe thrusts forward its 
ness to the southernmost and easternmost peninsula (Greece), with its island 

outposts, especially Crete, reaching far out into the oriental 
waters so early crossed and recrossed by Egyptian ships 
(§ 77). The map thus shows us why the earliest high civi- 
lization on the north side of the Mediterranean appeared on 
the Island of Crete. At the same time we should notice that 
the ^Egean world is touched by Asia, which here throws out 
its westernmost heights (Asia Minor), so that Asia and Europe 
face each other across the waters of the v^gean. Asia. Minor 
with its trade routes was a link which connected the yEgean 
world with the Fertile Crescent. 

333. The We see here, then, that the older oriental civilizations con- 
islanSout- verged upon the yEgean by two routes: first and earliest by 
posts of the gj^^p across the Mediterranean from Egypt; second by land 
ress of these through Asia Minor from the Euphrates world. Thus the 

islands and • , i i i • i • i .^ • 

backwardness ^gean islands became a bridge connecting the Orient and 
iLn?^"'^'"" Europe. Already in the Late Stone Age the ^gean islands 
had unavoidably become outposts of the great oriental civili- 
zations which we have found so early on the Nile and the 
Euphrates. It was on the ^gean islands and not on the 
mainland of Europe that the earliest high civilization on 
the north side of the Mediterranean grew up. 

334. The We call the earliest inhabitants of the ^gean world ^geans. 
?Egean world They were inhabiting this region when civilization dawned there 

(about 3000 B.C.), and they continued to live there for many 
centuries before the race known to us as the Greeks entered 
the region. These ^geans, the predecessors of the Greeks 
in the northern Mediterranean, belonged to a great and gifted 
white race having no connection with the Greeks. -They were, 
and their descendants still are, widely extended along the 



The Dawn of European Civilization 227 

northern shores of the Mediterranean.^ We call them the 
Mediterranean race, but their origin and their relationships 
with other peoples are as yet little understood. At a time far 
earlier than any of our written records, they had occupied not 
only the mainland of Greece and the islands of the ^gean, but 
they had also settled on the neighboring shores of Asia Minor. 

From the beginning the leader in this island civilization of 335. Crete 
the ^geans was Crete. This large island lies so far out in the tweerTthe^' 
Mediterranean that one is almost in doubt whether it belongs ^^tJI] ^"^ 
to Europe or to Africa (see map, p. 252). At the dawn of 
civilization " Crete was as much a part of the East ... as 
Constantinople is to-day." ^ Even in ancient ships the mariners 
issuing from the mouths of the Nile and steering northwest- 
ward would sight the Cretan mountains iiTa few days. Thus 
Crete was the link between Egypt on the south and the -<r^]gean 
Sea on the north (see map, p. 252). 

The little sun-dried-brick villages, forming the Late Stone 336. Rise of 
Age settlements of Crete, received copper from the ships of the zadon"under 
Nile by 3000 B.C., as we have seen (§ ^26). Somewhat later Egyptian 

■' \ ^ / influence 

the Cretan metal workers received, probably from mines in the (3000- 
northern Mediterranean, supplies of copper mixed with tin, 
giving them the hard mixture we call bronze, which is much 
harder than copper. Thus began the Bronze Age in Crete 
after 3000 b.c. For a thousand years afterward their progress 
was slow, but it gained for them some very important things. 
While the great pyramids of Egypt were being built, the Cretan 
craftsmen learned from their Egyptian neighbors the use of the 
potter's wheel and the closed oven (Fig. 48). They could then 
shape and bake much finer clay jars and vases. By copying 
Egyptian stone vessels they learned also to hollow out hard 
varieties of stone and to make beautifully wrought stone vases, 
bowls, and jars (Fig. 134). For some time the Cretans had been 

1 It has been thought that this race had its home in North Africa and that 
they spread entirely around the Mediterranean. The Egyptians and Semites 
may be branches of it, 2 Burrows, T/te Discoveries in Crete. 



228 



Ancient Times 



337. Rise of 
the sea-kings 
of Crete 

(2000 B.C.) 



employing rude picture records like Figs. 26 and 32. Under 
the influence of Egypt these picture signs now gradually de- 
veloped into real phonetic writing (Figs. 135 and 137), the 
earliest writing in the ^gean world (about 2000 B.C.). 

By 2000 B.C. the Cretans had become a highly civilized 
people. Near the coast, for convenient access to ships, were 







Egypt Crete 

Fig. 134. Early Stone Vases of Crete and the Egyptian 
Originals from which they were copied 

The earlier vases from Egypt (on the left) compared with those of Crete 

(on the right) show that the Cretan craftsmen copied the Egyptian forms 

(§ 336) in the latter part of the Pyramid Age (about 2700-2600 B.C.) 



the manufacturing towns, with thriving industries in pottery 
and metal work, enabling them to trade with other peoples. 
Farther inland the green valleys of the island must have been 
filled with prosperous villages cultivating their fields of grain and 
pasturing their flocks. At Cnossus, not far from the middle of 
the northern coast (see map, p. 252), there grew up a kingdom 
which may finally have included a large part of the island. The 



The Dawn of European Civilization 



229 



Late Stone Age town at Cnossus had long since fallen to ruin 
and been forgotten. Over a deep layer of its rubbish a line of 
splendid Cretan kings now built a fine palace arranged in the 
Egyptian manner, with a large cluster of rooms around a central 
court. Farther inland toward the south shore arose another 
palace at Phaestus, perhaps another residence of the same 
royal family, or the capital of a second kingdom. 



Egyptian 



Cretan 



Sign of Life 



Egyptian Cretan 



m 



Palace Tower 





Libation Vase Bronze Adze 

Fig. 135. Cretan Hieroglyphs and the Egyptian Signs 

FROM WHICH THEY WERE TAKEN. (AfTER SiR ArTHUR EvANS) 

These examples show us in the first column the Egyptian originals 

from which the Cretan hieroglyphic signs shown in the second column 

were taken (see § 336) 



These palaces were not fortified casdes, for neither they nor 338. Power 
the towns connected with them possessed any protecting walls. kings^oT^ 
But the Cretan kings were not without means of defense. They ^^^*^^ 
already had their palace armories, where brazen armor and 
weapons were stored. Hundreds of bronze arrowheads, with 
the charred shafts of the arrows, along with written lists of 
weapons and armor and chariots, have been found still lying in 
the ruins of the armory rooms in the palace at Cnossus (§ 340). 
The troops who used these weapons were of course not lacking. 
Moreover, the Cretan kings were also learning to use ships in 



230 



Ancient Times 



339. Expan- 
sion of Cretan 
commerce 
and industry 



340. Devel- 
opment of 
Cretan linear 
writing and 
records 



warfare, and it has become a modem habit to call them the 
'' sea-kings of Crete." ^ 

Cretan industries henceforth flourished as never before. The 
potters of Cnossus began to produce exquisite cups as thin and 
delicate as modem porcelain teacups. These and their pottery 
jars and vases they painted in bright colors with decorative de- 
signs, which made them the most beautiful ware to be had in 
the East (Fig. 136, A). Such ware was in demand in the houses 
of the rich as far away as the Nile, just as fine French table 
porcelain is widely sold outside of France at the present day. 
The new many-colored Cretan vases were so highly prized by 
the Egyptian nobles of the Feudal Age that they even placed 
them in their tombs for use in the next world. In these Egyp- 
tian tombs modern excavators have recovered them, to tell us 
the story of the wide popularity of Cretan industrial art in the 
nineteenth and twentieth centuries b. c. Egyptian ships, common 
in the eastern Mediterranean since the thirtieth century B.C., 
must have been frequent visitors in the Cretan harbors. At 
the same time the prevailing north wind of summer easily car- 
ried the galleys which the Cretans had learned to build, across 
to the mouths of the Nile. There were many things in Egypt 
which the Cretans needed. Hence commerce between Crete 
and the Nile was constant (see map, p. 252). 

Cretan business now required much greater speed and con- 
venience in writing than was possible in using the old picture 
signs (Fig. 135). These pictures were therefore much abbre- 
viated and reduced to simpler forms, each picture consisting of 
only a few lines. This more rapid hand, called linear writing 
(Fig. 137), was scratched on clay tablets. The chests of arms 
and weapons in the palace armory had each a clay-tablet label 
hanging in front of it. Great numbers of clay tablets stored in 



1 The sea power of the Cretans has been much exaggerated by recent writers. 
One of the old Cretan sea kings, according to later tradition, was named Minos. 
For this reason early Cretan civilization has been called Minoan, and this is now 
the most common term applied to it. We use the term " ^Egean " ; for the term 
" Mycenaean," see § 347. 




A B 

Fig. 136. Two Cretan Vases showing Progress in the Art 
OF Decoration 

The first vase {A) is an example of the earher pottery, painted on a 
dark background with rich designs in " white, orange, crimson, red and 
yellow." The potters who made such vases were, together with the 
seal-cutters, the first really gifted decorative artists to arise in Crete. 
They flourished from 2000 B.C. onward, in the days of the first palace 
of Cnossus (§ 337). We should notice that their designs do not picture 
carefully anything in nature, like flowers or animals (even though a 
hint of a lotus flower appears in the angle of the spiral) ; but the fig- 
ures are almost purely Imaginative and drawn from Egyptian art. The 
second vase [B), however (some five hundred years later than the first), 
shows how the artists of the Grand Age had learned from Egyptian 
decorative art to take their decorative figures from the 7iaUiral world, 
for we see that the design consists chiefly of Egyptian lotus flowers 
(§ 341). Such designs were no longer in many colors; on this jar, 
indeed, they are molded in relief. This jar {B) is nearly 4 feet high 
and much larger then the first example {A). Stone and metal vases 
of the Grand Age were sometimes superbly decorated with carved 
bands of human figures in action. See the fine examples of this style 
in Fig. 140, and the headpiece, p. 221 
231 



232 



Ancient Times 



341. The 
Grand Age 
in Crete and 
its art (1600- 
1500 B.C.) 



chests seem to have contained the records, invoices, and book- 
keeping lists necessary in conducting the affairs of a large royal 
household. Masses of these have been found covered by the 
rubbish and ruins of the fallen palace. In spite of much study, 
scholars are not yet able to read these precious records, the 
earliest-known writing on the borders of the European world. 

The Cretan kings, how- 
ever, did not erect 
large stone monuments 
engraved with written 
records of their build- 
ings, their victories, and 
their great deeds, like 
those we have found in 
the Orient. 

A few centuries of 
such development as 
this carried Cretan civ- 
ilization to its highest 
level, and the Cretans 
entered upon what we 
may call their Grand 
Age (1600-1500 B.C.). 
As the older palace of 
Cnossus gave way to a 
larger and more splen- 
did building (Fig. 138), 
the life of Crete began 
to unfold in all directions. The new palace itself, with its colon- 
naded hall, its fine stairways (Fig. 138), and its impressive open 
areas, represented the first real architecture in the northern 
Mediterranean. The palace walls were painted with fresh and 
beautiful scenes from daily life, all aquiver with movement and 
action ; or by learning the Egyptian art of glassmaking the Cre- 
tans adorned them with glazed figures attached to the surface 




Fig. 137. Clay Tablet bearing a 
Record in the Rapid Cretan Hand- 
writing OFTEN CALLED LiNEAR 

This writing is a later stage of the hiero- 
glyphs in Fig. 135 (see also § 340) 



The Dawn of European Civilization 



233 



of the wall. The pottery painters had by this time given up the 
use of many colors. They now employed one dark tone on a 
light background, or they modeled the design in relief. Noble 
vases (Fig. 136, B) were painted in grand designs drawn from 
plant life or often from the life of the sea, where the Cretans 
were now more and more at home. This wonderful pottery 
shows the most 
powerful, vigor- 
ous, and impres- 
sive decorative art 
of the early orien- 
tal world. Indeed, 
it belongs among 
the finest works 
of decorative art 
ever produced by 
any people. 

The method of 
use and the execu- 
tion of the work 
everywhere show 
that this art was 
developing under 
suggestion from 
Egypt ; for exam- 
ple, walls covered 
with colored glazed 
tiles were in use 
in Egypt nearly two thousand years earlier than in Crete. But 
in spite of this fact the Cretan artist did not follow slavishly 
the Egyptian model. A growing plant painted on an Egyp- 
tian wall seems sometimes so rigid and stiff that it looks as if 
done with a stencil. The Cretan artist drew the same plant 
with such free and splendidly curving lines (Fig. 136, ^) that 
we seem to hear the wind swaying the stems and giving us 




Fig. 138. Colonnaded Hall and Stair- 



342. Inde- 
pendence 
and power 
^ ^ of Cretan 

CASE IN THE CRETAN PalACE OF THE artists in spite 

Grand Age at Cnossus of Egyptian 

influence 
The columns and roof of the hall are modern 
restorations. This hall is in the lower portion 
of the palace, and the stairway, concealed by 
the balustrade at the back of the hall, led up by 
five flights of fifty-two massive steps to the 
main floor of the palace. On the painted inte- 
rior decoration of this palace consult § 341 and 
see Fig. 139 



234 



Ancient Times 



343. The 

life of the 
Cretans in 
the Grand 
Age : the 
common folk 



" The soft eye-music of slow-moving boughs " (Wordsworth). 
The Cretan sculptor in ivory, too, as well as the goldsmith and 
worker in bronze wrought masterpieces which remain to-day 
among the world's greatest works of art (Figs. 140 and 141). 
The palace of Cnossus looked out upon a town of plain, 
sun-dried-brick houses. Here must have lived the merchants and 
traders, the potters, metal workers, painters, and other crafts- 
men, though many of these also lived and worked in the palace 




Fig. 139. Cretan Lords and Ladies of the Grand Age on 
THE Terraces of the Palace at Cnossus. (After Durm) 

This scene was painted on the walls of the palace as part of the interior 
wall decoration. It has been somewhat restored, as shown above, but it 
forms a remarkable example of the Cretan artist's ability to produce 
the impression of an animated multitude of people seen from a distance 
and blending into a somewhat confused whole (see also § 341) 



344. The 

nobles about 
the king 



itself ; while on the outskirts, or up the valley, dw^elt the peas- 
ants who cultivated the fields. On one occasion we see the 
peasants marching in joyous procession, probably celebrating a 
harvest festival (headpiece, p. 221). 

Upon such celebrations of the people there looked down 
from the palace a company of lords and ladies, who lived an 
astonishingly free and modem life. The ladies, wearing cos- 
tumes (Fig. 141) which might tastefully appear in the streets of 
modern New York or Chicago, crowded the palace terraces and 
watched their champions struggling in fierce boxing matches, in 
which the contestants wore heavy metal helmets (Fig. 139). 





Fig. 140. Wild Bulls pictured by a Cretan Goldsmith 
AROUND Two Golden Cups 

These cups were found at Vaphio, near Sparta, whither they were im- 
ported from Crete. The goldsmith beat out these marvelous designs 
with a hammer and punch over a mold, and then cut in finer details 
with a graving tool. His work must be ranked among the greatest 
works of art produced by any people 




Fig. 141. Ivory and Gold Statuette of a Cretan Lady 
OF the Grand Age. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts) 

The proud little figure stands with shoulders thrown far back and arms 
extended, each hand grasping a golden serpent, which coils about her 
arms to the elbow. She wears a high tiara perched daintily on her 
elaborately curled hair. Her dress consists of a flounced skirt and a 
tight bodice tapering to her slender waist. The whole forms a costume 
so surprisingly modern that this little Cretan lady would hardly create 
any comment if she appeared s6 dressed on one of our crowded city 
streets of to-day. The figure is carved in ivory, while the flounces are 
edged with bands of gold and the belt about the waist is of the same 
metal. She represents either the great Cretan mother goddess or pos- 
sibly only a graceful snake-charmer of the court. In any case the 
sculptor has given her the appearance of one of the noble ladies of his 
time. Even the Greek sculptor never surpassed the vitality and the 
winsome charm which passed from the fingers of the ancient Cretan 
artist into this tiny figure 



The Dazvn of Ei trope an Civilization 



235 



Or the assembled court (Pig. 139) cheered the plucky bull- 
fighters tossed on the horns of huge wild bulls (Fig. 140), — 
the same huge creatures which were hunted by the Late Stone 
Age men of Europe a thousand years before (Fig. 12). These 
people lived in com- 



fortable quarters in 
the palace, where they 
even had bathrooms 
and sanitary drainage 
(Fig. 142). 

From the palace of 
Cnossus the Cretan 
king could issue at 
the North Gate and, 
mounting his chariot, 
ride in half an hour 
to the harbor, three 
and a half miles away. 
At the harbor he 
looked out northward 
where the nearest 
islands of the ^Flgean 
could be clearly seen 
breaking the north- 
ern horizon (see map, 
p. 252). Here the 
trading galleys of the 
Cretan kings were 



\>. >"}, 







Fig. 142. Tile Drainpipes from the 
Cretan Palace of Cnossus 



345- 



These joints of pottery drainpipe (2| feet 
long and 4 to 6 inches across) are part of 
an elaborate system of drainage in the 
palace, the oldest drainage system in the 
European world. The oldest-known system 
of drainpipe (copper) is in the pyramid- 
temple of Abusir, Egypt (see Fig. 56), about 
a thousand years earher than this system 

at Cnossus 
spreadmg Cretan art 

and industries far and wide through the Mediterranean. These 

Cretan fleets formed the earliest naval power which grew up in 

the northern Mediterranean, and the student should contrast 

the dugouts of the Late Stone Age (Fig. 14). Nevertheless, the 

kings of Crete were now vassals of the Pharaoh. An Egyptian 

general of Thutmose III (§ 1 1 1) in the fifteenth century B.C. bore 



Political 
and commer- 
cial position 
of Crete in 
and after the 
Grand Age 



236 



Ancient Times 



346. Crete to 
be regarded 
as the home 
of the third 
great civiU- 
zation in the 
ancient world 



347. Cretan 
civilization 
reaches the 
mainland of 
Greece ; the 
Mycenaean 
Age 



the title of " governor of the islands in the midst of the sea," 
as the Egyptians called the islands of the ^Egean (Fig. 143). 
Here, then, in the island of Crete, there had arisen a new 
world. The culture of the gifted Cretans, stimulated by the 
magic touch of riper Egyptian culture, shook off the Late Stone 

Age lethargy of early Europe 
and sprang into a vigorous life 
all its own. Beside the two 
older centers of civilization on 
the Nile and the two rivers in 
this age, there thus grew up 
here in the eastern Mediterra- 
nean, as a third great civili- 
zation, this splendid world of 
J Crete and the vEgean Sea. 
It is this third great civiliza- 
tion which forms the link be- 
tween the civilization of the 
THE ^GEAN ISLANDS IN THE i Qrient and the later progress 
Grand Age 




Fig. 143. Golden Dish of 
the Egyptian Governor of 



This golden dish was given by the 
Pharaoh Thutmose III (§ iii) to 
one of his favorite generals, whom 
he had made governor of the 
i^igean islands. The dish bears an 
inscription which calls him " gov- 
ernor of the islands in the midst 
of the sea," by which the Egyp- 
tians meant the ^^gean islands 
and coasts of Asia Minor 



of man in Greece and western 
Europe. 

Section 35. The ^Egean 
World : the Mainland 



As yet, the mainland, both 
in Europe and in Asia Minor, 
had continued to lag behind 
the advanced civilization of the islands. Nevertheless, the fleets 
of Egypt and of Crete maintained commerce with the main- 
land of Greece. They naturally entered the southern bays, 
and especially the Gulf of Argos, which looks southward di- 
rectly toward Crete (see map, p. 252). In the plain of Argos 
(Plate III), behind the sheltered inlet, massive strongholds, 
with heavy stone masonry foundations and walls, arose atf 



The Dazvn of European Civilizatioii 



237 



Tiryns (Fig. 1 44) 
and Mycenae (Fig. 
145). The T^gean 
princes who built 
such strongholds a 
little after 1500 B.C. 
imported works of 
Cretan and Egyp- 
tian art in pottery 
and metal (Fig. 1 40). 
These triumphs of 
Cretan art, with 
fragments of Egyp- 
tian glaze and wall 
decorations, still sur- 
viving in the ruins 
of palaces and 
tombs, are to-day 
the earliest tokens 
of a life of higher 
refinement on the 
continent of Europe. 
This period (about 
1500 to 1200 B.C.) 
is commonly known 
as the Mycenaean 
Age, after Mycenae, 
where such civiliza- 
tion was first discov- 
ered (Section 36). 

But the main- 
land still lagged be- 
hind the islands, 
for Cretan writing 
seems not to have 




P^iG. 144. Restoration of the Castle 

AND Palace of Tiryns. (After Lucken- 

bach) 

Unlike the Cretan palaces, this dwelling of 
an ^gean prince is massively fortified. A 
rising road {A) leads up to the main gate {B), 
■where the great walls are double. An assault- 
ing party bearing their shields on the left arm 
must here (C, D) march with the exposed 
right side toward the city. By the gate [E) 
the visitor arrives in the large court {F) on 
which the palace faces. The main entrance 
of the palace (C) leads to its forecourt (//), 
where the excavators found the place of the 
household altar of the king (§ 423). Behind 
the forecourt (//) is the main hall of the 
palace (/). This was the earliest castle in 
Europe with outer walls of stone. The vil- 
lages of the common people clustered about 
the foot of the castle hill. The whole formed 
the nucleus of a city-state (§ 390) in the plain 
of Argos (see Plate III, p. 276) 



348. Con- 
tinued back- 
wardness of 
the European 
mainland 



238 



Ancient Times 



349. Asiatic 
mainland : 
foundation of 
Troy (about 
3000 B.C.) 



followed Cretan commerce, and there was as yet no writing 
prevalent on the continent of Europe. Regions of northern 

Greece, such as Thessaly, 
were covered with scat- 
tered settlements which 
had advanced but little be- 
yond Late Stone Age civil- 
ization. Metal, although 
known, was not common 
in Thessaly until about 
1500 B.C., and the cul- 
tured Cretans had little in- 
fluence here in the north. 
Along the Asiatic side 
of the ^gean Sea we find 
much earlier progress than 
on the European side, al- 
though this was but slightly 
due to the commerce from 
Crete, which seems to have 
had little effect along the 
shores of Asia Minor. In 
the days when Crete was 
first receiving metal (after 
3000 B.C.), there arose at 
the northwest corner of 
Asia Minor a shabby little 
Late Stone Age village 
known as Troy. It was 
probably built by traders 
attracted by the profitable 
traffic which was already 
crossing back and forth be- 
tween Asia and Europe at 
this point (see map, p. a 5 2). 




Fig. 145. The Main Entrance 
OF THE Castle of Mycen^, 

CALLED THE LlON GaTE 

This shows us a good example of the 
heavy stone masonry with which were 
built the great gates of the two cities 
of the ^gean Grand Age, Tiryns and 
Mycenae, on the plain of Argos (§ 347). 
Above the gate is a large triangular 
block of stone, carved to represent two 
lions grouped on either side of a cen- 
tral column. The whole doubtless 
formed the emblem of the city, or the 
arms of its kings. It is of course a 
descendant of the two Babylonian lions 
of Lagash, showing a similar balanced 
arrangement with one on each side of 
the center (Fig. 85) 



The Dawn of Europe mi Civilization 239 

By 2500 B.C., some centuries after the first metal had been 350. Growth 
introduced, the rulers of Troy were wealthy commercial kings, ^h^Io^] 
and their castle was the earliest fortress in the ^gean worldj[ iSoob.c.) 
for it was a thousand years older than the fortresses at Mycenae \ 
and Tiryns. During this thousand years (2500 to 1500 B.C.) 
Troy was rebuilt several times (Fig. 150), but it continued 
to flourish, and it finally must have controlled a kingdom of 
considerable extent in northwestern Asia Minor. Thus about 
1500 B.C. the splendid and cultivated city of Troy was a power- 
ful stronghold (Sixth City), which had grown up as a northern 
rival of that sumptuous Cnossus we have seen in the south. 
The two rival cities faced each other from opposite ends of 
the JEgean, but we infer that Cnossus was superior in civiliza- 
tion, for it is still uncertain whether the Trojans of this age 
could write. 

Inland from Troy and the ^gean world, across the far- 351. Asia 
stretching hills and mountains of Asia Minor, were the settle- land^ofthe 
ments of a great group of white peoples who were kindred of ^^"ites 
the ^geans in civilization, though not in blood. We call them 
Hittites. Although the larger part of their land lay outside of 
the ^gean world, nevertheless, one end of it formed the eastern 
shores of the ^gean Sea. Asia Minor, their land, is a vast penin- 
sula from six hundred and fifty to seven hundred miles long and 
from three to four hundred miles wide, being about as large as 
the state of Texas. The interior is a lofty table-land, little better 
than a desert in its central region. Around most of this table- 
land rise mountain ridges, fringing both the table-land and the 
sea. On both sides of the mountain fringe are fertile valleys 
and plains, producing plentiful crops. The seaward slopes of 
the mountains, .especially along the Black Sea, are clad with 
flourishing forests. The northern shores of Asia Minor, east of 
the Halys River, rise into ridges containing rich deposits of 
iron. The Hittites thus became the earliest distributors of iron 
when it began to displace bronze in the Mediterranean world 
and the East (§219). 



240 



Ancient Times 



352. The 

Hittites a 
link between 
the Fertile 
Crescent and 
the vEgean 



353. The 

Hittites in- 
fluence their 
neighbors 
both in east 
and west 




In discussing oriental influences in the ^]gean, we have 
already seen (§ 332) how Asia Minor formed a link between 
the y^gean and the world of the Two Rivers. The people who 
made it such a link were these Hittites. For at the eastern 
end of their land they passed easily down the upper Euphrates 
to the Fertile Crescent, where they merged with the peoples 

there whose his- 
tory we have 
already stud- 
ied. We recall, 
for example, 
how they held 
early Assur, 
in competition 
with Babylon 
(§ 202). We 
find also that 
the Hittites 
early borrowed 
the old Baby- 
lonian coat of 
arms, a lion- 
headed, or some- 
times a double- 
headed, eagle. 
They handed it 
on across the 
^gean to later Europe, from which it passed to us in the United 
States as the ''American " eagle (Fig. 85). 

Both in the ^gean and in the Fertile Crescent, that is, at 
both ends of their land, the Hittites left their mark upon their 
neighbors. We recall the prominent aquiline nose of the Hit- 
tite people (Fig. 146). The same feature among the Hebrews 
shows how the Hittites drifted down the west end of the Fer- 
tile Crescent, until they reached Palestine (§ 291) in sufficient 



Fig. 146. An Ancient Hittite and his 
Modern Armenian Descendant 

At the left is the head of an ancient Hittite as 
carved by an Egyptian sculptor on the wall of a 
temple at Thebes, Egypt, over three thousand years 
ago. It strikingly resembles the profile of the Ar- 
menians still living in the Hittite country, as shown 
in the modern portrait on the right. The strongly 
aquiline and prominent nose (§ 146) of the Hittites 
was also acquired by the neighboring Semites along 
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, including the 
Canaanites (see headpiece, p. 197) 



The Dazvn of Europe aii Civilization 



241 



numbers to affect the Hebrew type of face. On the west in the 
same way, Hittite life greatly influenced the cities along the 
^Egean coast of Asia Minor, where we shall find that even 
the later Greeks still bore marks of Hittite influence, especially 
in important matters of business, like coinage (§ 458), but also 
in religion and architecture. 

It was from their contact with the Fertile Crescent that 354. Rise of 
the Hittites received the first influences leading to a higher zation^- Baby- 



civilization. The most 
important of these was 
writing. The Babylo- 
nian caravans, passing 
up the Euphrates in 
the days of Hammurapi 
(§ 187) and earlier, 
brought into Asia Minor 
business and traffic, with 
bills and other commer- 
cial documents in cunei- 
form writing on clay 
tablets (Fig. 79). In 
this way, like other peo- 
ples in the West, the 



Ionian writing 




Fig. 147. An Inscription in Hittite 
Hieroglyphs 

This example shows us the hieroglyphic 
writing devised by the Hittites in imitation 
of the Egyptian (§ 335). It was found at 
Carchemish on the Euphrates. The same 
writing may also be seen accompanying 
the scene in Fig. 148 



Hittites learned cuneiform by 2000 B.C. or earlier. Excavation 
in Asia Minor has even recovered fragments of the clay-tablet 
dictionaries used by the Hittites in learning to write and spell 
words in cuneiform. It was probably through the Hittites that 
the use of the clay tablet passed over to Crete (Fig. 137). 

The Hittites profited by the Egyptian civilization also, as they 355. Hittite 
received it through the cities of northern Syria, like Samal writhfi^^^'"" 
(Fig. 97). Here, under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphic 
writing, they devised a system of picture signs with phonetic 
values (Fig. 147). With these hieroglyphic signs they en- 
graved great stone records like those of Egypt. These records 
(Fig. 147), cut into the face of rocky cliffs or masonry walls, 



242 



Ancient Times 



356. Hittite 
art and archi- 



357. Hittite 
religio' 



Still look down upon the passing traveler throughout a great 
part of Asia Minor from the y^gean to the Euphrates, and new 
ones are constantly being found by excavation. The Hittites 
thus used two methods of writing — cuneiform and hieroglyphic. 
Unfortunately, the Hittite records written in hieroglyphs carved 
on stone are not yet deciphered. Just as this book goes to 
press the decipherment of the Hittite cuneiform records has 
been accomplished by Hrozny, an Austrian scholar. When all 
these records have been read, like those of Egypt, Babylonia, 
and Persia, they will reveal to us many new and wonderful facts 
in the story of the ancient world. 

At the same time the Hittites had made progress in building. 
The king's palace front consisted of a porch in the middle, with 
its roof supported on two columns, while on either side of the 
porch was a square tower (Fig. 97, K). It was therefore called 
a " house of two towers." This was the porch adopted from 
the Hittites by the great Assyrian emperors (§ 224). It finally 
reached even the Persians. It was adorned with great sentinel 
lions carved in stone on either side of the entrance, an idea 
suggested by the Egyptian sphinx. From the Hittite palaces this 
idea of protecting beastS on either side of the palace entrance 
passed also to Assyria. The Hittite palace porch was further- 
more adorned with a dado, consisting of large flat slabs of stone 
carved with relief pictures (Fig. 148), probably suggested by 
similar Egyptian arrangements (Fig. 60). This idea, too, finally 
passed by way of the Hittites to Assyria, where we recall the 
long rows of stone pictures adorning the Assyrian palaces 
(Figs. 105 and 106, B). The Hittite sculptors, however, had 
little skill with the chisel. The Assyrians far surpassed them, 
and under Assyrian influence the Hittites improved somewhat. 

In these scenes we find also evidences of religious influences 
from both Egypt and Babylonia, as we note among them the 
Babylonian eagle already mentioned and the winged sun-disk 
from the Nile. We should notice furthermore the devotion of 
the Hittites to the great Earth-Mother as their chief goddess, 



The Dawn of Europe a7i Civilization 



243 



whom we have also found in Crete (headpiece, p. 221), and 
who later was revered by the Greeks (§ 416). 

In the great days of the Egyptian Empire, while Cnossus 358. Rise of 
was still in the Grand Age and Troy her northern rival was Empire 
building the splendid Sixth City, that is, about 1500 B.C., one centurJ^Bc) 
of the Hittite kingdoms on the east of the Halys River (see 
map, p. 100) was gaining great power. It had established 




Fig. 148. A Hittite Prince hunting Deer 

The prince accompanied by his driver stands in the moving chariot, 
shooting with bow and arrow at the fleeing stag. A hound runs beside 
the horses. Over the scene is an inscription in Hittite hieroglyphs 
{§ 355). The whole is sculptured in stone, and forms a good example 
of the rather crude Hittite art 



a strong fortified capital at a city called Khatti (map, p. 100). 
This name is simply an ancient form of the modern name 
" Hittite." The kings of Khatti erected imposing palaces and 
temples, and built a great wall about the city (Fig. 152). They 
succeeded in gaining control of the other Hittite kingdoms and 
combining them into an empire which included a large part of 
Asia Minor. 

This Hittite Empire lasted for some two centuries and a half 
(about 1450 to 1200 B.C.). The Hittites had received the horse, 



244 



Ancient Times 



359. The 

Hittite Em- 
pire (about 
1450- 

1200 B.C.) 



360. The 

Hittites con- 
tribute the 
first iron to 
the ancient 
world 



perhaps even earlier than the Babylonians (§ 197), and the 
kings of Khatti were able to muster large and powerful bodies 
of charioteers. They thus played a vigorous part in the great 
group of nations around the eastern end of the Mediterranean 
after Egypt established the first empire there (Section 9). They 
had much to do with breaking down the Egyptian Empire (§12 2), 
and they survived to fight fierce battles with the Assyrians. 

One of the most important things we should remember about 
the Hittites is the fact that they began working the iron mines 
along the Black Sea (§351). A clay-tablet letter written by one 
of the Hittite kings tells us that he was about to send a 
shipment of " pure iron " to Ramses II, who had asked for it, 
and that meantime a sword of iron was being sent to the Egyp- 
tian king as a gift (thirteenth century b. c). We shall soon see 
the Iron Age beginning in the ^Egean (§ 392), and it was 
from the Hittite iron mines that the metal first became com- 
mon in the eastern Mediterranean. While the Hittite civiliza- 
tion was inferior to that of Egypt and Babylonia, it played a 
very important part in the group of civilizations forming the 
oriental neighbors of the ^geans. 



361. Modern 
ignorance 
of ^gean 
civilization 



Section 36. Modern Discovery in the Northern 

Mediterranean and the Rise of an Eastern 

Mediterranean World 

We have been putting together the story of the rise and early 
history of civilization along the north side of the eastern end of 
the Mediterranean (see map, p. 252), extending from the ^gean 
world at one end, through the Hittite country to the Two Rivers 
at the other. Only a few years ago this story was entirely un- 
known. Less than fifty years ago no one supposed that civilized 
people had lived in the yEgean world before the Greeks arrived 
there. Much less did anyone dream that we would ever be 
able to find the actual handiwork of the predecessors of the 



The Dawn of European Civilization 245 

Greeks in the y^^gean world. The discoverer of the ^Egean civil- 
ization which we have been studying was Heinrich Schliemann. 

Schliemann was an American citizen of German birth. In 362. Life 
his youth before coming to America he had a romantic busi- schliemann 
ness career. After being shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, 
he began his business experience there while a mere lad, as a 




Fig. 149. The Mound containing the Nine Cities of 
Ancient Troy (Ilium) 

The process by which such artificial mounds grow up is explained in 
§ 158. When Schliemann first visited this mound (see map, p. 254) in 
1868, it was about 125 feet high, and the Turks were cultivating grain 
on its summit. In 1870 he excavated a pit like a crater in the top of the 
hill, passing downward in the course of four years through nine succes- 
sive cities built each on the ruins of its predecessors. At the bottom of 
his pit (about 50 feet deep) Schliemann found the original once bare 
hilltop about 75 feet high, on which the men of the Late Stone Age 
(§ 349) had established a sifiall settlement of sun-baked brick houses 
about 3000 B.C. (see Fig. 150). Above the scanty ruins of this Late 
Stone Age settlement rose, in layer after layer, the ruins of the later 
cities, with the Roman buildings at the top. The entire depth of 50 feet 
of ruins represented a period of about thirty-five hundred years from 
the First City (Late Stone Age) to the Ninth City (Roman) at the top. 
The Second City (§ 350) contained the earliest copper found in the 
series; the Sixth City was that of the Trojan War and the Homeric 
songs (§ 410). Its masonry walls may be seen in Fig. 151 

clerk in a little grocer's shop. In the brief intervals of leisure 
between dealing out smoked herring and rolls of butter, he 
taught himself Greek and began to read Homer (§ 410). In 
the infatuated ears of this enthusiastic boy the shouts of the 
Greek heroes on the plain of Troy mingled with the jingle of 
small change and the rustle of wrapping paper in the dingy 
little Dutch grocery. He had not lost this fascinating vision of 



246 



Ancient Times 



363. Schlie- 
mann's exca- 
vation and 
discovery 
of Troy 



the early world, when years afterward he retired from business, 
after having won a large fortune in Russian petroleum. 

It was therefore as the fulfillment of a dream of his youth 
that Schliemann led a body of Turkish laborers to begin excava- 
tions in the great mound of Troy in 1870 (see map, p. 252, and 
Fig. 149). In less than four years he uncovered the central 




6th City --t==X' 

, 1500B.C - 'Y 

^ifdestruijcd 12th cent BC.)^ 

ily 2500B.C. .2dvu)m, 
■yt f. StoncApeTown .S onmn.^ 

^< Rock 



. 0/ Hill 
Temples above =Roman City (in ruins, 500.A.D.) 
Sixth City. 1500, B. C (Homeric City) 

Second City, 2500. B. C. 




Fig. 150. Diagram of the Mound of Ancient Troy showing 

THE Walls of the Second and Sixth Cities and the Roman 

Temple at the Top (Ninth City) 

This diagram is much too high for its width, as you will see by com- 
paring the width and height of the mound in Fig. 149. It has been 
pushed together at the sides and narrowed to include it within the avail- 
able space. Below is the native rock of th^ hill on which the Late Stone 
Age settlement was built. Then come the sloping walls of the Second 
City (shaded). Outside of these and rising much higher are the walls of 
the Sixth City (black), v/hich may be seen as they are to-day in Fig. 151. 
The other cities of the nine are less important and have been left out 
for the sake of clearness. Schliemann never saw the walls of the Sixth 
City, the real Homeric city, because as he dug down in the middle of 
the mound inside the ancient walls, he covered the walls of the Sixth 
City with the rubbish he dug out 



portions of nine successive cities, each built upon the ruins of 
the next city beneath, which had preceded it (Fig. 150). A 
towered gateway in the Second City contained a splendid treas- 
ure of golden jewelry, and Schliemann believed that he had here 
discovered the Troy of Homer's Greek heroes (§ 408). But 
we now know that this Second City was built a thousand years 
before Homer's Troy (the Sixth City (Fig. 150)). 



The Daiv7t of Eiiropeajt Civilization 



247 



The sensation aroused by these discoveries among the 364. Schlie- 

scholars of Europe and America was mild compared with that ^tion^of^'^^" 

which followed when Schliemann, crossing to the mainland of l]^^^ ^"^ 

' ° Mycenae 

Greece, began excavating the prehistoric fortress or casde of 





f*r"4V Yiito 




Fig. 151. The Walls of Homeric Troy (built about 1500 b.c.) 

A section of the outer walls of the Sixth City in the mound of Troy 
(Fig. 150). The sloping outer surface of the walls faces toward the 
right ; the inside of the city is on the left. These are the walls built in 
the days when Mycenae was flourishing — walls which protected the 
inhabitants of the place from the assaults of the Greeks in a remote war 
which laid it in ruins after 1200 B.C., a war of which vague traditions 
and heroic tales have survived in the Homeric poems (§ 40S). These 
are the walls, scaled by the Greek heroes, which Schliemann never 
saw (compare description, Fig. 150). The walls of the houses of the 
Seventh City are visible here resting on those of the Sixth 



Mycenae (Fig. 145). Beneath the pavement of the market place 
he found a group of stone tomb chambers containing a magnifi- 
cent series of vessels and ornaments in gold, including an elabo- 
rate golden crown, indicating the royalty of one of the dead. 
Again Schliemann thought that these things belonged to the 
Greek heroes of the Trojan wars (§ 408), but in reality "they 



248 



Aiicie^it Times 



365. Excava- 
tions in Crete 
since 1900 



366. Excava- 
tion and dis- 
covery in 
Asia Minor, 
the land of 
the Hittites 



were older. At the neighboring prehistoric castle of Tiryns 
(Fig. 144 and § 347) Schliemann made similar discoveries. 
Thus within a few years an unskilled and untrained excavator 
disclosed to us a new and entirely unknown world of civilization 
in the ^gean, which had flourished for centuries before the 
Greeks appeared there. 

The question of the original home of this early y^gean civili- 
zation, however, was not settled by Schliemann's work. Since 
1900 the excavations in Crete have shown this island to have 
been the place where vF^gean civilization made its start, and the 
center from which it passed to the other islands and to the 
mainland of Greece at Tiryns and Mycenas (§ 347). In these 
discoveries American explorers have had an honorable share ; 
but they have been due chiefly to the remarkable excavations 
of Sir Arthur Evans, the English archaeologist, at the city of 
Cnossus. Here Evans has uncovered the splendid Cretan 
palaces (Fig. 138), clearing out layer after layer of rubbish 
containing works of Cretan art and industry, which carry us 
back age after age to the rubbish of the Late Stone Age settle- 
ment deep down at the bottom of the mound, over which the 
first palace was built (§ 337). 

At the same time exploration in Asia Minor has revealed 
increasing numbers of Hittite monuments. Of these discoveries 
the most important were those of the German expedition at 
Khatti (Fig. 152), beginning in the winter of 1 906-1 907. Lying 
just under the surface of the soil, where it was quite possible to 
kick them out with the heel of one's boot, the explorers found 
the clay tablets which once filled the state record chambers in 
the palace of the Hittite kings at Khatti during the great days 
of their empire three thousand years ago. Here were letters 
to and from the kings of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and all the 
great powers of the oriental world which we have studied. 
Among them was the letter already mentioned, containing the 
Hittite king's notice of the coming shipment of iron. Besides 
recovering the lost records, the German expedition gradually 




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249 



250 



Antient Times 



^<5tj. Modern 
recovery of 
early civiliza- 
tion entirely 
around the 
eastern end 
of the Medi- 
terranean 



368, Rise of 
an eastern 
Mediterra- 
nean world 
(3000- 
1500 B.C.) 



369. North- 
em intruders 



excavated the walls of the ancient city and its chief buildings, 
and recovered their architecture (cf. Fig. 152). 

Although we are still unable to read the records of the 
Cretans and are only beginning to read those of the Hittites, 
the discoveries in their lands have revealed to us the earliest 
chapter of civilization on the north side of the eastern Mediter- 
ranean. If we connect these discoveries along the north side of 
the Mediterranean at its east end with the earlier story of dis- 
covery in the oriental lands east and south of the Mediterranean, 
the student will perceive how scholars and explorers have car- 
ried the work of excavation and discovery entirely around the 
east end of the Mediterranean, from the low^er Nile valley, 
through the nations of the Fertile Crescent, to Asia Minor and 
the ^gean Sea (see map, p. 100). 

These discoveries have begun to show us how the civilized 
peoples all around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, by 
their industries and commerce, were gradually creating a civilized 
world of which the ^gean Sea was merely a northern bay. We 
recall our first glimpse of this eastern Mediterrane^ world as 
we journeyed up the Nile and saw the Egyptian ships which 
crossed the eastern Mediterranean nearly 3000 B.C. (Fig. 41). 
But now we have studied the peoples on the east and north of 
the Mediterranean and have seen how, at the close of the 
Grand Age in Crete, the splendid ^gean civilization had been 
mingling for centuries with the older oriental civilizations, espe- 
cially that of the Nile, but also with that of Hittite Asia Minor 
and through it with the civilization of the Fertile Crescent. 

Into this civilized world of the eastern Mediterranean, with 
its arts, its industries, and its far-reaching commerce, the uncivil- 
ized peoples of the North behind the Balkan mountains and the 
Black Sea were now beginning to intrude. These uncivilized 
northerners were the Greeks. They were soon to overwhelm 
the eastern Mediterranean, and with these Northern intruders 
we must begin a new chapter in the history of the eastern 
Mediterranean world. 



The Dawn of Europea7t Civilization 251 

QUESTIONS 

Section 33. At what point in their progress did we leave the 
Europeans when we first passed over to the Orient? What products 
of the eastern Mediterranean reached the Late Stone Age Euro- 
peans? How did these things reach Europe? Did the possession 
of metal raise the Europeans to a high civilization? 

Section 34. Was 'there any part of Europe nearer the Orient 
than the ^gean world ? By what two ways was it connected with 
the Orient? What island of the ^^gean is nearest- to Egypt? De- 
scribe the rise of civilization there. Can you mention some evidences 
of Egyptian influence there ? Where did the Cretan sea-kings arise ? 
What survives to tell us of their power ? What industries flourished ? 
Can you. mention some evidence of Cretan commerce? What now 
happened to Cretan writing? Tell something of Cretan decorative 
art in the Grand Age ; of the work of sculptor and goldsmith. Tell 
something of the Hfe of the palace and of the peasants. Under what 
foreign power were the Cretans at this time? What three great 
civilizations now existed? 

Section 35. Had the European mainland advanced as fast as 
Crete in civilization? Where do we find evidences of the first civi- 
lization on the continent of Europe, and what are they ? Date them. 
Was there yet any writing common in Europe? Where and when 
did civilization arise on the east side of the ^gean ? What led men 
to this point? What can you say about the history and civilization 
of Troy? What people occupied most of Asia Minor? Mention 
some things which they passed on to the West from the East. 
Recall some evidences of their influence in the East. What influ- 
ences reached the Hittites from the Fertile Crescent and from Egypt ? 
When did the Hittite Empire arise, and what can you say about its 
influence? What was the most important thing which the Hittites 
contributed to other peoples ? 

Section 36. Who first discovered remains of people who had oc- 
cupied the yEgean world before the Greeks ? Tell something of his 
life. What did he find at Troy? in Greece? What has excavation 
in Crete since shown ? What has excavation in Asia Minor revealed ? 
With reference to the eastern end of the Mediterranean how far have 
excavation and discovery been carried ? What kind of a world has dis- 
covery revealed in the eastern Mediterranean ? What uncivilized 
Northerners were now intruding into this eastern Mediterranean world? 




CHAPTER IX 



370. South- 
ward advance 
of the Indo- 
European 
line in 
Europe 



THE GREEK CONQUEST OF THE AEGEAN WORLD 

Section 37. The Coming of the Greeks 

The people whom we call the Greeks were a large group of 
tribes of Indo-European race. We have already followed the 
Indo-European parent people until their diverging migrations 
finally ranged them in a line from the Atlantic Ocean to north- 
ern India (§ 243 and Fig. 112). While their eastern kindred 

Note, The above headpiece shows a line of captive warriors with their hands 
shackled before them or pinioned over their heads. They wear a tall feathered 
headdress, which shows them to be Philistines (§296), a tribe of Cretan war- 
riors driven out of Crete by the Greeks (§ 379). Some of them, invading 
Egypt in their flight, were taken captive by Ramses III, the last of the Egyptian 
emperors, not long after 1200 B.C. He therefore placed this picture of them on 
the walls of his temple at Thebes, Egypt. Other pictures of them may be seen 
in Fig. 154, recognizable by their headdress. 

252 



\ 




i 



The Greek Coiiqicest of the y^gean World 253 



were drifting southward on the east side of the Caspian, the 
Greeks on the west side of the Black Sea were likewise mov- 
ing southward from their broad pastures along the Danube 
(see map II, p. 252). 

Driving their herds before them, with their families in rough 371. The 
carts drawn by horses, the rude Greek tribesmen must have Se^c'reek^^'^ 



looked out upon 
the fair pastures 
of Thessaly, the 
snowy summit of 
Mount Olympus 
(Fig- 153)^ and the 
blue waters of the 
^gean not long 
after 2000 b.c. 
The Greek penin- 
sula which they had 
entered contains 
about twenty-five 
thousand square 
miles.^ It is every- 
where cut up by 
mountains and in- 
lets of the sea into 
small plains and 
peninsulas, sepa- 
rated from each 
other either by the 



peninsula 




Fig. 153. 



Mount Olympus 
OF THE Gods 



THE Home 



Although Mount Olympus is on the northern 
borders of Greece, it can be seen from Attica 
and the south end of Euboea. It approaches 
10,000 feet in height, and looks down upon 
Macedonia on one side and Thessaly on the 
other (see map, p. 264). As we look at it here 
from the south, we have a portion of the plain 
of Thessaly in the foreground, where the first 
Greeks entered Hellas (§ 371), and where later 
the earliest Homeric songs of the Greek heroes 
were composed (§ 408) 



sea or the moun- 
tain ridges. No less than five hundred islands are scat- 
tered along its deeply indented eastern shores (map, p. 264, 
and Plate III). On its climate and products see § 331. 

1 About one sixth smaller than South Carolina — so small that Mount Olympus 
on the northern boundary of Greece is visible over much of the peninsula. 
From the mountains of Sparta one can see from Crete to the mountains north of 
the Corinthian Gulf (see Fig, 163), a distance of two hundred and twenty-five miles. 



254 



Ancient Times 



372. The bar- 
barian Greek 
nomads and 
the settled 
^^gean civili- 
zation 



373- 



^^^. The bar- 
barian Greek 
nomads on 
the margin 
of the great 
oriental 
world 



374. Achaean 
Greeks fol- 
lowed by 
Dorian 
Greeks in 
Peloponnesus 
by 1500 BX. 



The wandering shepherds whom we have seen so often in- 
vading the Fertile Crescent (§§ 135, 167, and 294) to find a set- 
tled and civilized town life there, furnish us the best possible 
illustration of the situation of the Greeks as they invaded the 
^gean towns and settlements like Tiryns and Mycenae (§ 347). 
As the newcomers looked out across the waters they could dimly 
discern the islands, where flourishing towns were carrying on 
busy industries, especially in pottery and metal, which a thriving 
commerce was distributing (§§ 339 and 345). 

We can imagine the wonder with which these barbarian 
Greeks must have looked out upon the white sails that flecked 
the blue surface of the ^Egean Sea. It was to be long, how- 
ever, before these inland shepherds would themselves venture 
timidly out upon the great waters which they were viewing for 
the first time. Had the gaze of the Greek nomads been able 
to penetrate beyond the yEgean isles, they would have seen a 
vast panorama of great and flourishing oriental states. Here on 
the borders of the great oriental world and under its influences 
the Greeks were now to go forward toward the development of 
a civilization higher than any the Orient had yet produced, the 
highest indeed which ancient man ever attained. 

Gradually their vanguard (called the Achasans) pushed south- 
ward into the Peloponnesus, and doubtless some of them 
mingled with the ^Egean dwellers in the villages which were 
grouped under the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae (Figs. 144, 145, 
and Plate IH), just as the Hebrew nomads mingled with the 
Canaanite townsmen (§ 294). Some of the Greek leaders may 
have captured these ^gean fortresses, just as David took Jeru- 
salem (§ 297). But our knowledge of the situation in Greece is 
very meager because the peoples settled here could not yet write, 
and therefore have left no written documents to tell the story. 
It is evident, however, that a second wave of Greek nomads 
(called the Dorians) reached the Peloponnesus by 1500 b.c. 
and subdued their earlier kinsmen (the Achaeans) as well as the 
a^gean townsmen, the original inhabitants of the region. 



The Greek Conquest of the y^gean World 255 

The Dorians did not stop at the southern limits of Greece, 375. The 
but, learning a little navigation from their ^gean predecessors, poTs^ession^of 
they passed over to Crete, where they must have arrived by the ^gean 
1400 B. c. Cnossus, unfortified as it was, and without any walled Dorians in 
castle (§ 338), must have fallen an easy prey to the invading southern 
Dorians, who took possession of the island, and likewise seized ^s^^" 
the other southern islands of the ^gean. Between 1300 and 
1000 B.C. the Greek tribes took possession of the remaining 
islands, as well as the coast of Asia Minor — the Dorians in the 
south, the lonians in the middle, and the -Cohans in the north. 
Here a memorable Greek expedition in the twelfth century 
B.C., after a long siege, captured and burned the prosperous 
city of Troy (§ 350), a feat which the Greeks never after 
forgot (§ 408). During the thousand years between 2000 and 
1000 B.C. the Greeks thus took possession not only of the 
whole Greek peninsula but likewise of the entire ^gean world. 

The interior of Asia Minor suffered likewise. Other Indo- 376. Phryg- 
Europeans, kindred of the Greeks, were pushing southward Armenians 
behind them. Some of these rearward Indo-European tribes ^^^.^^^ ^^'^ 

^ Minor 

found it easier to cross the Hellespont and invade Asia Minor 
than to push on into Greece. Probably before 1500 b. c. some 
of these invaders of Asia Minor had become so numerous 
among the Hittites, who were not originally Indo- Europeans, 
that the Hittite communities began to lose their own tongue 
and to speak the Indo-European language of the newcomers. 
Thus the Hittite cuneiform tablets (§ 354) are in a language 
which contains Indo-European words and grammatical forms 
akin to those in Greek, as the new decipherment (§ 355) has 
recently shown. By 1 200 b. c. a second wave of Indo-Europeans, 
especially the Phrygians and the Armenians, were invading the 
Hittite country in Asia Minor. 

The northern Mediterranean all along its eastern end was 377. Flight of 
thus being absorbed by Indo-European peoples. The result ^g^ns ° ^ 
was that both the ^geans and their Hittite neighbors in Asia 
Minor were overwhelmed by the advancing Indo-European 



256 



Ancient Times 



378. Egyp- 
tian repulse 
of the fugi- 
tive ^geans 



379. Cretan 
Philistines 
find a home 
in Southern 
Palestine 



380. Fall of 
jEgean civili- 
zation 



line The Hittite Empire (§ 359) completely collapsed. The 
splendid ^gean civilization which we saw rising so prosper- 
ously was unable to repel the invaders. Probably few of the 
common people of the yEgean towns were able to flee. On 
the other hand, the noble and well-to-do ^gean families, the 
class to which our elegantly dressed little Cretan lady of the 
statuette (Fig. 141) belonged, — forming, all told, considerable 
numbers, — must have taken to the sea and fled. They looked 
back upon burning towns and villas, and they must have seen 
the splendid palace of Cnossus, with all its beautiful treasures 
of Cretan art, going up in smoke and flame. 

By 1200 B.C. the movement of the Greek or Indo-European 
invasion from the north had thus set in motion before it a wave 
of fleeing ^E^geans, which crossed the sea and broke upon the 
shores of the southeastern Mediterranean from the Nile Delta 
to the harbors of Phoenicia. It was this wave of ^Egean fugi- 
tives which aided in overturning the tottering Egyptian Empire. 
An Egyptian relief scene shows us the earliest-known picture 
of a naval batde (Fig. 154) — a sea fight off the coast of Syria, 
in which the last of the Egyptian emperors beat off an ^gean 
fleet (§ 124). 

The only region where the fleeing ^geans were numerous 
enough to settle and to form a nation was in Southern Pales- 
tine. Here a tribe of Cretans called Philistines (headpiece, 
p. 252), although they had been beaten in the sea fight just 
mentioned, were able to establish themselves and build up a 
group of prosperous cities, in the twelfth century B.C. We recall 
how they nearly succeeded in crushing the young Hebrew 
nation just then emerging (§ 296). Curiously enough, it was 
these fugitives from the ^gean world who gave to Palestine 
its present name, for " Palestine " is simply a later form of the 
name " Philistine." 

The Indo-European invasion of the ^Elgean world thus broke 
up the prosperous and highly civilized communities which we 
have seen there, especially in Crete. By 1200 B.C. the splendid 



{ 



The Greek Conquest of the yEgea7i World 257 

^gean civilization had been almost submerged by northern bar- 
barism, little better than the Late Stone Age life which we 
have already seen in Europe. Some important things in 
^gean civilization, perished entirely — among them Cretan 



Fig. 154. Battle between a Fleet of Fleeing ^geans 
AND AN Egyptian Fleet 

This scene, sculptured on the walls of an Egyptian temple at Thebes 
(§ 124), is the earliest surviving picture of a naval battle. It shows us 
the Mediterranean peoples defeated by the last Egyptian emperor, 
Ramses III, not long after 1200 B.C., somewhere along the Syrian 
coast (§ 378). Of the nine ships engaged four are Egyptian (lion's head 
on the prow) — three at the left and one in the lower right-hand corner. 
The remaining five are ^gean ships (goose-head on the prow). One 
^gean ship (middle, below) has been overturned. The v^^.geans are 
Philistines with feathered headdress (see headpiece, p. 252), and we 
see here how they passed from Crete to Palestine (§ 379). The ^geans 
iire armed only with round shields and spears or two-edged swords (§ 776), 
whereas the Egyptians are chiefly archers, who overwhelm the enemy 
with archery volleys at long range and then close in, taking Philistine 
prisoners who m^ay be seen standing bound in the Egyptian ships 

writing, which disappeared after the Greek invasion. Enough 
of ^vgean industries survived, however, to form an essential part 
of the foundation upon which the barbarian Greeks were yet 
to build up the highest civilization of the ancient world. 

Such of the ^Egean population as had not fled before the 
incoming Greeks mingled with their Greek conquerors, just as 



258 Ancient Times 

381. Min- we have seen the civilized Canaanites of Palestine mingling 
^ge^s with the invading Hebrew nomads (§ 294). This commingling 
and Greeks q£ ^geans and Greeks produced a mixed race, the people 

known to us as the Greeks of history. How much ^gean 
blood may have flowed in their veins we are unable to deter- 
mine. But the supreme genius of the classical Greeks may 
well have been due, in some measure, to this admixture of the 
blood of the gifted Cretans, with their open-mindedness toward 
influences from abroad and their fine artistic instincts. 

382. Tri- The mingling of Greek and ^Egean blood did not result 
Greekspeech i^ a similar mixture of speech, as English is made up of 

French and Anglo-Saxon. Greek, the language of the victori- 
ous invaders, gradually became the language of the ^gean 
world. At the same time Greek did not blot out every trace 
of the older yEgean language of the region. People continued 
to call the towns, rivers, and mountains, like Mount Parnassus, 
by the old ^gean names they found in use, just as we found 
Ifidian geographical names in America and continue to call our 
greatest river by its old Indian name, Mississippi (" Father of 
Waters "). Such names in Greece are to-day surviving remnants 
of the lost y^^gean language, now no longer anywhere spoken.^ 
It is interesting also to notice that a few ^gean words for 
civilized conveniences, such as the Greek invaders did not 
possess, likewise survived. So the word "bathtub" in Greek 
is really an old ^gean word. For of course a race of wander- 
ing shepherds such as the Greeks had been, had no such 
luxuries : whereas we have recovered the actual bathtubs of 
the refined ^geans (§ 344), from whom the Greeks learned 
the name. Nevertheless, the Greek language was already de- 
veloping as the richest and most beautiful instrument of speech 
man has ever possessed. 

1 We do not know to what group of languages the old /Egean speech, now 
lost, belonged. The still undeciphered Cretan writings (§ 340) may yet reveal this 
secret. The claim made in America that one variety of Cretan hieroglyphic has 
been deciphered, and found to be Greek, is without foundation. The recent deci- 
pherment of Hittite cuneiform (§§ 355 and 376) shovild aid in solving the problem. 



The Greek Conquest of the ALgean World 259 

Section 38. The Nomad Greeks make the 
Transition to the Settled Life 

In tranquil summer days one can pass from island to island 383- Early 

, . ^ ^ r r^ A.,r. Greeks not 

and cross the entire vf^gean Sea from Greece to Asia Minor a maritime 
in a rowboat. This is why a group of shepherd tribes like the ^^°^ ^ 
Greeks had been able to cross and take possession of the islands 
of the ^gean and the coast of neighboring Asia Minor. But 
we must not conclude that at this early stage of their history 
they had already taken to the sea and become a people of 
sailors. Centuries later we find the Greek peasant-poet Hesiod 
(700 B.C.) looking with shrinking eye upon the sea. Long after 
they had taken possession of the ^gean world the Greeks re- 
mained a barbarous people of flocks and herds, without any 
commerce by sea. 

If we would understand the situation of the Greeks after 384. Earliest 
their conquest of the civilized ^geian world, we must again tut?ons"oV 
recall nomad life as we have seen it along the Fertile Crescent ^^^ Greeks 
in Asia (§ 136). We remember that the nomads possessed no 
organized government, for there was no public business which 
demanded it. Even to-day among such people no taxes are 
collected, for no one owns any land which can be taxed. 
There are no public officials, there are no cases at law, no legal 
business, and men are controlled by a few customs like the 
"blood revenge" (§ 136). Such was exactly the condition 
of the nomad Greeks when they began a settled life in the 
yEgean world. 

From their old wandering life on the grasslands they carried 385. Tribes, 
with them the loose groups of families known as tribes, and and""as- 
within each tribe an indefinite number of smaller groups of s^mbly" 
more intimate families called '^ brotherhoods." A " council " 
of the old men ('' elders ") occasionally decided matters in 
dispute, or questions of tribal importance, and probably once 
a year, or at some important feast, an " assembly " of all the 
weapon-bearing men of the tribe might be held, to express its 



26o 



Ancient Times 



386. Rise of 
Greek kings 



387. Greeks 
begin agri- 
culture 



388. Rise of 
land owner- 
ship and its 
consequences 
in govern- 
ment and 
society 



opinion of a proposed war or migration. These are the germs 
of later European political institutions and even of our own 
in the United States to-day.^ 

It was perhaps after they had found kings .over such ^gean 
cities as Mycenae (§ 347) that the Greeks (like the Hebrews, 
§ 296) began to want kings themselves. Thus the old-time 
nomad leaders whom they had once followed in war, religion, 
and the settlement of disputes became rude shepherd kings 
of the tribes. 

Meantime the Greek shepherds slowly began the cultivation 
of land. This forced them to give up a wandering life to build 
houses and live in permanent homes. Nomad instincts and 
nomad customs were not easily rooted out however. War and 
the care of flocks continued to be the occupation of the men^ 
as it had been for centuries on the Northern grasslands ; while 
the cultivation of the fields was at first left to the- women. 
Furthermore, flocks and herds continued to make up the chief 
wealth of the Greeks for centuries after they had taken up 
agriculture. 

As each Greek tribe settled down and became a group of 
villages, the surrounding land was divided among the families 
by lot, though the tribe as a whole long continued to be the 
only real owner of the land. Nevertheless, private ownership 
of land by families gradually resulted. As a consequence there 
arose disputes about boundaries, about inheritances in land 
(§ 452), and much other legal business, which as it increased 
required more and more attention by those in authority. The 
settlement of such business tended to create a government. 
During the four centuries from 1000 to 600 B.C. we see the 
Greeks struggling with the problem of learning how to transact 
the business of settled landholding communities, and how to 



1 Compare the House of Lords ( — the above " council ") and the House of ?, 
Commons ( = the above " assembly ") in England, or the Senate (derived from 
the Latin word meaning "old man") and the House of Representatives in the 
United States. 



The Greek Conquest of the y^gean World 261 

adjust the ever-growing friction and strife between the rich 
and the poor, the social classes created by the holding of 
land and the settled life (cf. § 31). 

We have seen the Semitic nomads struggling with the same 389. Lack 
problems on the Fertile Crescent (§ 167). But for them the amonythe 
situation was in one important particular much easier. They ^^"^'^ Greeks 
found among their settled predecessors a system of writing 
which they quickly learned (§ 167). But the old Cretan writing 
(§ 340), once used by the ^Egean predecessors of the Greeks, 
had perished. No one had ever yet written a word of the 
Greek language in this age when the Greeks were adopting 
the settled agricultural life. This lack of writing greatly in- 
creased the difficulties to be met as a government arose and its 
transactions began. There arose in some communities a "re- 
memberer," whose duty it was to notice carefully the terms of 
a contract, the amount of a loan, or the conditions of a treaty 
with a neighboring people, that he might remember these and 
innumerable other things, which in a more civilized society are 
recorded in writing. 

In course of time the group of villages forming the nucleus of 390. Rise of 
a tribe grew together and merged at last into a city. This was ^ ^^ >" ^ 
the most important process in Greek political development ; for 
the organized city became the only nation which the Greeks 
ever knew. Each city-state was a sovereign power ; each had 
its own laws, its own army and gods, and each citizen felt a 
patriotic duty toward his own city and no other. Overlooking 
the city from the heights in its midst was the king's castle 
(Fig. 144), which we call the "citadel," or "acropolis." Even- 
tually, the houses and the market below were protected by a 
wall. The king had now become a revered and powerful ruler 
of the city, and guardian of the worship of the city gods. King 
and Council sat all day in the market and adjusted the busi- 
ness and the disputes between the people. Though crude, cor- 
rupt, and often unjust, these continuous sessions for the first 
time created a state and an uninterrupted government. 



262 Ancient Times 

391. Riseof There were hundreds of such city-states throughout the 

zation in the mainland of Greece and the coasts and islands of the ^gean. 

Rrngs^/ujoo Ii^deed the ^gean world was made up of such tiny nations 

750 B.C.) after the Greeks had made the transition to the settled life 

there. It was while the Greeks were thus living in these little 

city-kingdoms under kings that Greek civilization arose. While 

there were Greek kings long before 1000 B.C., it is especially 

after that date, during the last two and a half centuries of the 

rule of the kings (1000-750 B.C.), that we are able to follow 

the rise of Greek civilization. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 37. To what race did the Greeks belong.? Had they 
always lived in Greece? Whence did they come? Were they ac- 
customed to settled town life? What kind of surroundings as to 
civilization did they now enter ? Describe their settlement and spread 
in the ^gean world; in Asia Minor. What was the effect upon the 
predecessors of the Greeks in the y^gean? in Asia Minor? Men- 
tion evidence of the flight of the ^geans. Who were the Philistines 
and where did they setde ? What happened to ^gean civilization ? 
to architecture ? to industries ? to writing ? What became of the 
^geans who remained behind ? Describe the results as to language. 

Section 38. Did the Greeks at once take to the sea? Did they 
take up town life at once? What other nomad peoples have we 
found in the same situation? What social institutions did the Greeks 
bring with them ? What can you say of the social effects of agricul- 
ture and landownership ? How did the Greeks get along without 
writing? What became of the villages around each Greek town? 
Did the Greek towns all unite into one great nation including all the 
Greeks? What was each Greek nation? Toward what did the 
Greek feel patriotism ? Describe a Greek city-state. Were there 
many of them ? Was there a nation including all the .^^gean world ? 
Who was at the head of each city-state? What was the form of 
government when Greek civilization arose ? Date the period when 
we are able to trace the rise of Greek civilization. 



^M 


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t% 


f^^^ 




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CHAPTER X 

GREEK CIVILIZATION IN THE AGE OF THE KINGS 

Section 39. The ^gean Inheritance and the 
Spread of Phcenician Commerce 

In one very important matter the Greek invaders were more 392. Begin- 
fortunate than their ^Egean predecessors. The iron which we iron Age 
have seen spreading in the Orient from the Hittite country looo^g^) 
(§ 360) had at the same time (thirteenth century B.C.) also 
begun to reach the Greeks. It was of course a matter of 
some centuries before iron tools and weapons entirely displaced 
those of bronze, just as the automobile will be a long time 
in entirely banishing the horse from among us. Indeed, after 
iron had been in common use among the Greeks for over five 
hundred years, the Greek poet JEschylus (§ 578) called it the 
" stranger from across the sea," or '' the Chalybean stranger," 
the Chalybean region being the iron district of Asia Minor (see 

Note. The above headpiece is a Greek vase-painting showing a battle scene 
from the Trojan War. In the middle is the fallen Achilles, for the possession of 
whose body a desperate combat is going on (§ 407). Here we see the armor of 
the early Greek warriors — a round shield on the left arm, a long spear in the 
right hand. A heavy two-edged sword was also carried, but the bow was not 
common. Only one warrior here uses it. The face is protected by a heavy helmet 
crowned by a tall plume of horsehair, and the body is covered by a bronze corse- 
let, a jacket of metal reaching from the neck to the waist. Below the knees the 
legs are protected by bronze fronts called greaves. At the extreme left a com- 
rade binds up a wounded warrior, on whose shield is the bird of his family arms 
(cf. Fig. 27). Behind him the goddess Athena watches the combat. The paint- 
ing is done in the older style of black figures on a red ground (contrast Fig, 170). 
The artist has inserted the names of the warriors, some written from left to right 
and some in the other direction (cf. headpiece, p. 282). 

263 



264 



Ancient Times 



393. Mem- 
ories of 
^gean civili- 
zation, and 
the dawn 
of Greek 
civilization 



394. Oriental 
influences : 
clothing 



map, p. 100). By 1000 B.C. iron was common in Greece. The 
Bronze Age had therefore lasted about two thousand years, 
that is, about as long as the career of the T^gean civilization. 
We may say indeed that the period of ^gean civilization coin- 
cided with the Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.), while the civi- 
lization of the Greeks arose at the incoming of the Iron Age 
(about 1000 B.C.). 

Long after 1000 B.C. the life of the Greeks continued to be 
rude and even barbarous. Memories of the old ^gean splendor 
lingered in the plain of Argos. Above the Greek village at 
Mycenae still towered the massive stone walls (Fig. 145) of the 
ancient y^gean princes, who had long before passed away. To 
these huge walls the Greeks looked up with awe-struck faces 
and thought that they had been built by vanished giants called 
Cyclops. Or with wondering admiration they fingered some 
surviving piece of rich metal work wrought by the skill of the 
ancient ^Egean craftsmen (Fig. 140). The tradition that Crete 
was the earliest home of their civilization never died out among 
the Greeks. Without any skill in craftsmanship, the Greek 
shepherds and peasants were slow to take up building, indus- 
tries, and manufacturing on their own account. Their slowness 
is also evident in the matter of writing, which the Greeks, as we 
have seen (§ 389), failed to learn from their ^Egean prede- 
cessors. For a long time even the dwellings of the Greek kings 
were usually but simple farmhouses of sun-dried brick, where 
the swine wandered unhindered into the court or slumbered in 
the sunshine beside the royal doorway. They made a begin- 
ning at pottery, and the rude paintings with which they deco- 
rated this rough ware (Fig. 155) show that the same methods 
employed by the ^gean potters in producing their fine ware 
in Crete a thousand years earlier (Fig. 136) were still lingering 
on in a decadent state. 

When we remember the experience of the yEgean peoples 
(§§ ?)?i'^-ZZZ)^ we perceive that the Greeks were now exposed to 
the same oriental influences which had so strongly affected early 



I 



Greek Civilization hi the Age of the Kings 265 




Fig. 155. Primitive Greek Art as 
SHOWN IN A Painted Vase of the Age 

OF the Kings 
This very fine specimen, over 3I feet high, 
one of the few well-preserved primitive 
Greek vases, was recently acquired by the 
Metropolitan Museum of New York. It rep- 
resents Greek art in its beginnings in the 
eighth century B.C. We see that the beauti- 
ful flowers, sea plants, and other natural 
objects employed by the TEgeans in their 
decorative art were abandoned by the early 
Greek vase-painters, in favor of bands of 

geometrical designs. The two rows of scenes show a funeral above, with 
the body lying on a high bier. Below is a procession of warriors with 
dumb-bell-shaped shields, and four-wheeled chariots each with three 
horses very rudely drawn. Compare the fine horses painted by the 
Greeks only a century and a half later (Fig. 164) and the magnificent 
steeds painted four and a half centuries later (Fig. 202). The practical 
working method employed in this work by the primitive Greek potter and 
vase-painter was wholly borrowed from his ^gean predecessors (§ 393) 



^gean civilization. 
The Greek towns- 
men had now put off 
the shaggy sheepskin 
of their former nomad 
life in favor of a shirt- 
like garment of woven 
wool. They had no 
name for it in Greek, 
but they heard the 
foreign merchants of 
whom they bought it 
calling it in their lan- 
guage a kiton (ke ton') 
(Fig. 156). 

To purchase arti- 
cles like this, which 
they did not them- 
selves make, the towns- 
men often went down 
to the seashore, where 
they and their women 
gathered about a ship 
drawn up with stern 
on the beach. Black- 
bearded traders, who 
overlooked the crowd 
from the high stem 



395. The 
wares of the 
Phoenician 
merchants 



266 



Ancient Times 



396. Ex- 
pansion of 
Phoenician 
commerce 



of the ship, tempted the Greeks with glass or alabaster perfume 
bottles from Egypt (Fig. 49) and rich blue porcelain dishes. If 
the women did not bid for these, they were quite unable to 
resist certain handsome ivory combs carved with lions in open- 
work (Fig. 157), and polished till they shone in the sun. 
Wealthy Greeks were attracted by 
furniture elaborately inlaid with ivory 
carvings (Fig. 108), and especially by 
magnificent large round platters of 
bronze or even of silver, richly en- 
graved (Fig. 158). Splendid purple 
robes hanging over the stern of the 
ship enriched the display of golden 
jewelry with flashes of brilliant color. 
Here too were the kitons, as we would 
have heard these swarthy strangers 
from the sea calling them. They were 
Phoenicians, and the word for the new 
garment adopted by the Greeks was a 
Phoenician word (see map II, p. 252). 
We see then that with the fall of the 
Egyptian Empire (after 1200 b. c.) the 
ships of Egypt in the eastern Mediter- 
ranean had disappeared. The same 
fate had at the same time overtaken 
the fleets of the ^F^geans. Thus the 
eastern Mediterranean was left un- 
occupied by merchant fleets, and by 
1000 B.C. the Phoenician cities (Fig. 159) were taking advantage 
of this opportunity. Once dwellers in the desert like the Hebrews, 
we remember that the Phoenicians had early occupied the towns 
along the Syrian coast (§ 141), where they became clever navi- 
gators. The Greek craftsmen were as yet quite unable to pro- 
duce such wares as the Phoenician merchant offered, and hence 
these oriental traders did a thriving business wherever they landed. 




Fig. 156. Phcenician 

Garment adopted by 

THE Greeks 

The Greeks called this 
garment a kito7i (early 
pronounced ke ton'; later, 
chiton') (see §§394-395). 
The garments of women 
may be seen in Fig. 170 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 267 




Nor did the Phoenicians stop with the ^gean world. They 
sought markets also in the West, and they were the discoverers 
of the western Mediterranean. 
JThey finally planted settlements 
even as far away as the Atlantic 
coast of Spain (Fig. 157). Their 
colony of Carthage (map, p. 288) 
became the most important com- 
mercial state in the western Medi- 
I terranean and the most dangerous 
rival of Rome, as we shall see 
^Sections 77 f.). For some three 
:enturies after rooo B.C. they 
ivere the greatest merchants in 
;he Mediterranean, and their far- 
'eaching traffic was beginning the 
3I0W creation of a great mercan- 
tile Mediterranean world. They 
[lad no armies, however, and little 
political organization. The only 
Phoenician colony that ever be- 
came a strong state was Carthage. 

The Phoenicians learned the 
methods of manufacturing their 
goods, in almost all cases, from 
Egypt, There they learned to 
make glass and porcelain, to 
weave linen and dye it, to cast 
and hammer and engrave metal. 
On the other hand, we find that 
the desig?is employed in their art 

were international. Their metal platters (Fig. 158) they en- 
graved with designs which they found in both Egypt and Asia. 
The art of Phoenicia was thus a kind of oriental composite or 
combination, drawn chiefly from the Nile and the Two Rivers. 



397. The 
Phcenicians 
the eadiest 
explorers of 
the western 
Mediter- 



FiG. 157. Ancient Phoe- 
nician Comb of Carved 
Ivory 

Such wares, manufactured at 
Sidon and Tyre, were dis- 
tributed by the Phoenician 
merchants through the Medi- 
terranean (§ 395) as far west as 
Spain, where combs like this 
have been found in ancient 
graves. The lion adorning this 
comb is the form that devel- 
oped in Syria (cf. Plate II). 
Phoenician craftsmen doing 
such work were also kept by 
the Assyrian emperors at Nin- 
eveh, and pieces of their work 
have been found there (Fig. 
108) bearing Phoenican signs 



398. Growth 
of Phoenician 
art and indus- 
tries : their 
composite 
international 
character 



268 



Ancient Times 



399. Oriental 
decorative 
art reaches 
Europe 



We remember that it was Phoenician workmen whom the Assyr- 
ian kings employed to make furniture and metal work for the 
royal palace (Fig. 108). King Solomon likewise employed Phoe- 
nician work- 
men to build 
for him the 
Hebrew tem- 
ple at Jerusa- 
lem (i Kings, 
v). After 1 000 
B.C. the Phoe- 
nicians were 
thus the artis- 
tic manufac- 
turers of a 
great world ex- 
tending from 
Nineveh on 
the east to 
Greece on the 
west. 

On the metal 
platters and 
the furniture 
of carved ivory 
landed from 
the Phoenician 
ships (§ 395), 
the Greek 
craftsmen found 

decorations made up of palm trees, lotus flowers, hunting scenes 
along the Nile, the Assyrian tree of life (Fig. 102), and many 
other picturesque things, but especially those strange winged 
creatures of oriental fancy, the sphinx, the gryphon, the winged 
horse. The Greeks soon began to imitate these things in their 




Fig. 158. Ancient Phcenician Platter of 
Engraved and Beaten Work 

This silver platter, now in the Berlin Museum, is of 
beautiful workmanship. A circular stream of water 
surrounds a rosette in the middle. On the water are 
four Nile boats (one of them in the form of a swan), 
outside of which is a circular border of papyrus flowers. 
The Phoenicians were very skillful in such metal work, 
which they thus adorned with Egyptian and Assyrian 
designs. Pieces of it have been found as far west as 
Spain and as far east as Nineveh, whither they were 
carried by the Phoenician merchants 



Greek Civilization i7i the Age of the Kings 269 

own work. Thus the whole range of oriental decorative art 
entered Greek life, to fill forever after a large place in the 
decorative art of all civilized peoples of the West, including our 
own to-day. At the same time it is highly probable that in the 
Phoenician workshops in the ^gean islands the Greeks could 
work side by side with the Phoenician craftsmen and learn how 



>'i*o=C--^^^^'*^ 




' S^isSlE^Sls 






^...4^^W'-y"^^^ 



i^.:^-^^fc/i^a^^^M 



Fig. 159. The Ancient Phcenician Harbor of Sidon as it 
now appears 

It was from this harbor that the Phoenician colonists sailed forth to 
establish new cities in the western Mediterranean, especially Carthage 
(§397)- I^ the Homeric poems the Phoenicians are often called Sido- 
nians. The town seen across the harbor is entirely modern, for the 
ancient city was again and again destroyed and rebuilt. Here the 
Phoenician ships were loaded with the goods manufactured in the city 
(Figs. 157 and 158), to be carried to the Greeks and other Mediterranean 
peoples; and here an alphabet first came into common use (§400) 



to make hollow bronze casts, an art invented in Egypt, and to 
manufacture many other things which were bringing such 
commercial success to the Phoenician merchants. Nevertheless, 
so litde of the refined ^gean art of the Grand Age had sur- 
vived that there are products of the Greeks in this period that 
are hardly as good as the work of the Middle Stone Age 
(compare the horses in Figs. 155 and 10, 6), 



2/0 



Ancient Times 



400. The 
Phoenicians 
devise an 
alphabet 
(about 
1000 B.C.) 



401. The 

Phoenicians 
arrange their 
new letters in 
a fixed order 
and give 
them names 



Section 40. The Phcenicians bring the First 
Alphabet to Europe 

But styles of dress, decorative art, and the practical methods 
of the craftsman were not the only things which the Phoenician 
merchants were bringing into Greece. For the Greeks now re- 
ceived from the Phoenicians a priceless gift, far more valuable 
than all the manufactured wares of the Orient. Indeed it was 
the most important contribution that ever reached Europe from 
abroad. This new gift was an alphabet. By 1000 B.C. the 
Phoenicians had long since given up the inconvenient clay tablet 
of Babylonia (Fig. 79). Indeed a century before this date they 
were already importing great quantities of papyrus paper from 
Egypt. Then they devised their own system of twenty-two signs 
(Fig. 160, column I) for writing their own language. It con- 
tained no signs for syllables, but each sign represented a single 
consonant. There were no signs for the vowels, which therefore 
remained unwritten. The Phoenicians were thus the first people 
to devise a system of writing containing nothing but alpha- 
betic signs ; that is, true letters. This great achievement of the 
Phoenicians was largely due to Egyptian influences. 

The Phoenicians arranged their new letters in a convenient 
order, so that the whole twenty-two might form a fixed list 
(Fig. 160, column I), easily learned. Such a list could not be 
learned without giving to each letter a name. They called the 
first letter of the alphabet ox, because the Phoenician word for 
ox, that is, aleph, began with the first letter. The second letter 
of the alphabet they called house, because beth, the Phoenician 
word for house, began with the second letter, and so on. This 
was not unlike our old primers, where our parents learned to 
say : "^ is for ' Axe ' ; ^ is for ' Bed,' " etc. When the chil- 
dren of the Phoenician merchants learned their letters, and 
were called upon to repeat the alphabet, they therefore began : 
"•^ Aleph, beth^^ etc., as if our children were to say: "Axe, Bed," 
etc., instead of " A, B," etc. 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 271 

The Phoenicians seem to have had little literature, but their 402. Phoe- 
merchants kept all their business records in this new and con- beTfirst's^l^n 
venient writing on papyrus. Just as the Arameans carried the ^^ Greeks 
Phoenician alphabet from the Mediterranean eastward through 
Asia to India (§ 205), so now the Phoenicians themselves carried 
it through the Mediterranean westward to Europe. The Greeks 
whom we have seen crowding around the Phoenician ships often 
found the Phoenicians handling bits of pale-yellow paper, on 
which were written bills and lists of merchandise in strange 
black signs. These the Greeks at first viewed with misgivings, 
as mysterious and dangerous symbols. One of their ancient 
songs of this age speaks of them as " baneful signs." Here 
and there a Greek merchant, thumbing the Phoenician trades- 
man's papyrus bills, finally learned the alphabet in which they 
were written, and slowly began to note down Greek words 
spelled with Phoenician letters. 

Here the Greeks early displayed the mental superiority 403. Greeks 
which, as we shall soon discover, they possessed. They noticed pe?fect"phoe- 
that there were no Phoenician letters standing: for vowels. u'"t'^ ^W-^" 

^ bet by adding 

They also noticed in the Phoenician alphabet a few letters vowels (about 

900 B.C.) 

representing consonants which did not exist in Greek speech. 
These letters they began to use for the Greek vowels (Fig. 160; 
of. columns I and H). They thus took the final step in the 
process of devising a complete system of alphabetic writing. 
It slowly spread among the Greek states, beginning in Ionia. 
For a long time it remained only a convenience in business and 
administration. For centuries the nobles, unable to read or write, 
continued to regard writing with misgivings. But even the 
painters of pottery jars had learned to use it by 700 b. c, when 
we find it on their decorated vases (see headpiece, p. 282). 
Shortly after this it was common among all classes. Literature 
nevertheless long remained an oral matter and was much 
slower than business to resort to writing. 

The Greek children, in learning to read, used for the letters 
the same names which had been employed in Phoenicia. The 



2/2 



Ancient Times 



404. Phoe- 
nician origin 
of the alpha- 
bets of the 
civilized 
world 



Greeks, not knowing what these strange names meant, altered 
them somewhat; but the Greek children began to pronounce 

the foreign names 
of the letters in the 
fixed order already 
settled in Phoenicia, 
saying " Alpha, beta," 
etc. (instead of 
''Aleph, beth,"etc.) 
(§ 401). As a child 
of to-day is said 
to be learning his 
A B C's, so the 
Greek child learned 
his Alpha Beta's, 
and thus arose our 
word " alphabet." 
The word "alpha- 
bet," therefore, should 
remind us of the 
great debt we owe 
to the Orient, and 
especially to the 
Phoenicians, for the ■ 
priceless gift of 
alphabetic writing. I 
For the Phcenician J 
alphabet spread frorr ! 
Greece to Italy anc . 
at last throughou! ; 
Europe. Indeed 
every alphabet of th( 
civilized world ha; 
descended from th( 
Phoenician alphabet 



I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


% 

< 

S 

e 

s 
Pi 


m 


oil 


< 


X 


z 

w 


K 


A 


A 


A 


A 


5 


S ^ 


^ 


B 


B 


7 


1 


r 


CG 


C.G 


A 


A 


A 


D 


D 


^ 


^ 


^ 


E 


E 


Y 


S 


K 


FV 


F.V.U 


s 


I 


X 




Z 


H 


B 


B 


H 


E.H 


© 


® 


® 


... 


TH.PH 


=1 


i 


$ 


1 


1 


1 


H 


K 


... 


K.KH 


c 


vm 


U/^ 


L 


L 


"? 


w. 


r 


M 


M 


1 


M 


H 


N 


N 


^ 


i 


5 


X 


X 

















1 


1 


p 


P 


p 


^ 


y 


M 




s 


9 


<P 


9 


Q 


Q 


1 


<1 


P 


R 


R 


w 


1 


^ 


S 


S 


y 


T 


T 


T 


T 



Fig. 160. Table showing how the 

Phcenician Letters passed through 

Greek and Latin Forms to reach 

their Present English Forms* 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 273 

Along with the alphabet, the equipment for using it — that is, 405. Oriental 
pen, ink, and paper — for the first time came into Europe. Paper ^he^words 
also brought in with it its oriental names. For the Greeks )|^^Pf^,"^"^ 
received from abroad the word papyros, designating the Egyp- 
tian paper on which they wrote, and we remember that this 
word has in its English form become ^' paper " (see § 58). 
Much of the papyrus used by the Greeks was delivered to them 
by Phoenician m.erchants from Byblos, a famous Phoenician city. 
Just as we apply the word " china " to a kind of table ware 
which first, came to us from China, so the Greeks often called 
papyrus byblos after the Phoenician city from which it came. 
Thus when they began to write books on rolls of such paper 
(Fig. 191) they called them biblia. It is from this term that 
we received our word " Bible " (literally '' book " or " books "). 
Hence the English word " Bible," once the name of a Phoenician 
city, is another living evidence of the origin of books and the 
paper of which they are made in the ancient Orient, from which 
the Greeks received so much. 



Section 41. Greek Warriors and the Hero Songs 

The Greek nobles of this age loved war and were devoted 406. The 

to fighting and plundering. It was a frequent sight to see the of^hTcreek 

Greek warrior waving farewell to his family before the pillared J^^^j^^^ "f 

porch of his home, as he mounted the waiting chariot and rode the Kings 
forth to battle. The vase-painters have often left us pictures 

* Column I contains the Phoenician alphabet made up exclusively of 
consonants (§ 400). The Phoenicians wrote from right to left, and 
hence the Greeks at first wrote in the same direction. The names of 
the warriors in the vase-painting (headpiece, p. 263) are several of them 
written in this way; hence column II shows letters like B "backward," 
as we say. The Greeks then gradually changed and wrote from left to 
right, and the next column (III) shows the letters facing as they do in 
our present alphabet (see B in column III). The transition from these 
later forms of the Greek letters (column III) to the Latin forms (col- 
umn IV) was very easy, and the Latin forms hardly differed from those 
which we still use (column V). 



2/4 Ancient Times 

of such warriors (headpiece, p. 263). While their protective 
armor was of bronze, their weapons were at this time com- 
monly of iron, although bronze weapons still lingered on, and 
in their tales of the great wars of the past the Greeks still told 
how the heroes of older days fought with bronze weapons. 

407. Battle It was only men of some wealth who possessed a fighting 
toms of war Outfit like this. They were the leading warriors. The ordinary 
of the Kmgs troops, lacking armor, were of little consequence in battle, 

which consisted of a series of single combats, each between 
two heroes. Their individual skill, experience, and daring won 
the battle, rather than the discipline 'of drilled masses. The 
victor seized his fallen adversary's armor and weapons; and 
having fastened the naked body of the vanquished to his 
chariot, he dragged it triumphantly across the field, only to 
expose it to be devoured by birds of prey and wild animals. 
There was thus many a savage struggle to rescue the body of 
a fallen hero (headpiece, p. 263). When a Greek town was 
captured, its unhappy people were slaughtered or carried away 
as slaves, and its houses plundered and burned. There was 
savage joy in such treatment of the vanquished, and such deeds 
were thought to increase the fame and glory of the victors. 

408. Rise of Men delighted to sing of valiant achievements on the field of 
songs batde and to tell of the stirring deeds of mighty heroes. In the 

pastures of Thessaly, where the singer looked up at the cloud- 
veiled summit of Mount Olympus (Fig. 153), the home of the 
gods, there early grew up a group of such songs telling many 
a story of the feats of gods and heroes, the earliest literature 
of the Greeks. Into these songs were woven also vague memo- 
ries of remote wars which had actually occurred, especially the 
war in which the Greeks had captured and destroyed the splen- 
did city of Troy (§ 375 and Fig. 151). Probably by 1000 B.C. 
some of these songs had crossed to the coasts and islands of 
Ionia on the Asiatic side of the ^Egean Sea. 

Here arose a class of professional bards who graced the 
feasts of king and noble with songs of battle and adventure 



Greek Civilization in the Age of tJie Kings 275 

recited to the music of the harp. Framed in exalted and 
ancient forms of speech, and rolling on in stately measures,^ 
these heroic songs resounded through many a royal hall — the 
oldest literature born in Europe. After the separate songs had 
greatly increased in number, they were finally woven together 
by the bards into a con- 
nected whole — a great epic 
cycle especially clustering 
about the traditions of the 
Greek expedition against 
Troy. They were not the 
work of one man, but a 
growth of several centuries 
by generations of singers, 
some of whom were still 
living even after 700 B.C. 
It was then that they were 
first written down. 

Among these ancient sing- 
ers there seems to have 
been one of great fame 
whose name was Homer 
(Fig. 161). His reputation 
was such that the composi- 
tion of the whole cycle of 
songs, then much larger than 
the remnant which has come 
down to us, was attributed 
to him. Then as the Greeks 



409. The 

Ionian 

singers 




410. Homer 



Fig. 161 



An Ideal Portrait of 
Homer 



This head, from the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts, is a noble example of 
the later Greek sculptor's ability to 
create an ideal portrait of a poet 
whom he had never seen. Such work 
was unknown in the archaic days of 
Greece; it was produced in the 
Hellenistic Age 



themselves later discerned the impossibility of Homer's author- 
ship of them <?//, they credited him only with the Iliad, ^ the 
story of the Greek expedition against Troy ; and the Odyssey, 



1 These were in hexameter ; that is, six feet to a hne. This Greek verse is the 
oldest Uterary form in Europe. 

2 So named after IHum, the Greek name of Troy. 



2/6 



Ancient Times 



411. The 
Homeric 
songs our 
earliest liter- 
ary record of 
the Greeks 



or the tale of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on his 
return from Troy. These are the only two series of songs that 
have entirely survived, and even the ancient world had its 
doubts about the Homeric authorship of the Odyssey. 

These ancient bards not only gave the world its greatest epic 
in the Iliad, but they were, moreover, the earliest Greeks to put 
into permanent literary form their thoughts regarding the world 
of gods and men. " At that time the Greeks had no other sacred 
books, and the Homeric songs became the veritable Bible of 
Greece. They gave to the disunited Greeks a common litera- 
ture and the inspiring belief that they had once all taken part 
in a common war against Asia. 



412. The 
Homeric 
songs and 
Greek re- 
ligion 



413. Primi- 
tive Greek 
religion 
before the 
Homeric 
songs 



Section 42. The Beginnings and Early 
Development of Greek Religion 

Just as devout Hebrews were taught much about their God 
by the beautiful tales of Him in the narrative of the great 
Unknown Historian (§302), so the wonderful Homeric songs 
brought vividly before the Greeks the life of the gods. Homer 
became the religious teacher of the Greeks. To us too he reveals 
a great chapter in the story of Greek religion. For like that of 
the Hebrews, the religion of the Greeks was a slow growth, 
passing gradually from a low stage to ever higher and nobler 
beliefs. There was, therefore, a chapter of Greek religion 
earlier than the Homeric songs. Let us look for a moment at 
the religion of Greece before the Homeric songs. 

Every Greek, like all primitive men, once thought that the 
trees and springs, the stones and hilltops, the birds and beasts, 
were creatures possessed of strange and uncanny powers. He 
thought there was such a spirit in the dark recesses of the 
earth which made the grain sprout and the trees flourish ; in 
the gloomy depths of the waters also, he believed there dwelt a 
like spirit which swayed the great sea ; while still another ruled 
the far sweep of the overhanging sky. As the Greek peasant, 




u 



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? a. 
i=J2 o 

o .^ 

w O 

o -o 
^ d 

O -CI " 

•^ ^ ?d 

C« !U fl 

p >- s 

^ .2 c 

c -£ >^ 
^ <u;- 

rt rt <+^ 

C " ° 

3 Oj W 

o o .Si 

C (u 2 

rt £i i^ 

6 § u 

"^ 3 c 
a. >^^ 

5 o 



:^ s-^ 



7^ 



^ o 

-^ O 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 277 

terrified by the jagged lightning and the rolling thunder, or 
grateful for the gently falling rain, looked up into the misty 
cloudland of the sky, he often saw the solitary eagle soaring 
across the vast and lonely expanse. To him the lofty, mysteri- 
ous bird seemed to be the mighty spirit of the sky, who dwelt 
there and in his wrath smote the great trees with fire, or in 
kinder moods sent down the refreshing rain. Thus to some 
Greeks the sky spirit seemed to be an eagle. 

Each such spirit, friendly or hostile, dwelt in a limited region, 414. The rise 
and it was believed possible to gain his favor or avoid his anger andTits^cS- 
by simple gifts, especially food. The earth spirit might be ^°"™^ 
reached by slaying a sheep and letting the blood flow into the 
earth; while the sky spirit would be won by burning a thigh 
of the sheep so that its odor might rise to the sky with the 
soaring smoke. Thus these spirits of the world around the 
early Greeks became gods and goddesses, and thus arose 
worship with its sacred customs and usages. There were no 
temples or houses of worship, and all the simple usages of 
religion went on out of doors in a grove or in the open air 
in the court of the house. 

We remember that the Hebrews never lost their belief in 415. The 

their great God Yahveh, whom they brought with them into zeustheSky- 

the land of Palestine: and so the Greeks likewise brought g^d into the 

^ /b>gean worla 

into Greece various ideas of the great Sky-god whom they 
had already worshiped in the old days on the grasslands. He. 
had different names ; in one valley they called him " Rain- 
giver," in another ''Thunderbolt" (§ 413). But he was finally 
known to all as Zeus, which was simply the Greek form of 
an old word for "sky" in the language of the Indo-European 
parent people. He became the highest god among all the 
numerous gods and goddesses revered by the Greeks. 

But Greek religion continued to grow after the Greeks had 416. Divini- 

tiPS oi" the 

reached the ^gean world. Here they found the ^Egeans wor- ^gean world 
shiping the great earth spirit, the Earth-Mother, or the Great ^^^^^^^ 
Mother, who made the earth bring forth her grain and fruit 



2/8 



Ancient Times 



417. The 

gods gain 
human form ; 
surviving 
traces of old 
animal forms 



418. Zeus 
and the dwell- 
ing of the 
gods on 
Mount 
Olympus ; 
Apollo 



as the food of man (headpiece, p. 221). From the ^Egeans the 
Greeks learned to revere her also, so that she became one of the 
great goddesses of Greek religion. The Greeks thus accepted 
the gods and goddesses whom they found in the ^gean world, 
just as many of the Hebrews accepted the Canaanite Baals 
which they found already in Palestine (§ 300). 

The Homeric songs, as we have said, reveal to us a second 
chapter in Greek religion, when the Greeks were gaining higher 
ideas about their gods. To be sure, even Homer has here and 
there an ancient reference which betrays their earlier animal 
forms, as when he speaks of a goddess as " owl-faced " or 
even '' cow-faced." Likewise the Satyrs, merry spirits of the 
forest, always had goat's hoofs and horns ; while the Centaurs 
were men with the bodies of horses. But those nature spirits, 
which gained a high place as gods and goddesses, appeared in 
the Homeric songs as entirely human in form and in qualities. 
Of course they possessed more power than mortals, and at the 
same time they enjoyed the gift of immortality. 

In the Homeric songs and in the primitive tales about the 
gods, which we call myths, the Greeks heard how the gods 
dwelt in veiled splendor among the clouds on the summit of 
Mount Olympus. There, in his cloud palace, Zeus the. Sky-god, 
with the lightning in his hand, ruled the gods like an earthly 
king. Each of the gods controlled as his own a realm of nature 
or of the affairs of men. Apollo, the Sun-god, whose beams 
were golden arrows, was the deadly archer of the gods. But 
he also shielded the flocks of the shepherds and the fields of 
the plowman, and he was a wondrous musician. Above all he 
knew the future ordained by Zeus and could, when properly 
consulted, tell anxious inquirers what the future had in store 
for them. These qualities gave him a larger place in the hearts 
of all Greeks than Zeus himself, and in actual worship he 
became the most beloved god of the Greek world. 

Athena, the greatest goddess of the Greeks, seems in the 
beginning to have ruled the air, and swayed the destroying 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 279 

tempests that swept the Greek lands. Such power made her 419. Athena, 

a warrior goddess, and the Greeks loved to think of her with of^Greek^^ 

shining weapons, protecting the Greek cities. But she held out ^^"^^^^ 

her protecting hand over them also in times of peace, as the 

potters shaped their jars, the smiths wrought their metal, or 

the women wove their wool. Athena too had brought them 

the olive tree, as they believed, and thus she became the wise 

and gracious protectress of the peaceful life of industry and 

art. Of all her divine companions she was the wisest in 

counsel, and an ancient tale told how she had been born in 

the very brain of her father Zeus, from whose head she sprang 

forth full-armed. As the divine foster mother of all that was 

best in Greek life, she was the loveliest of the protecting 

powers which the quick and sensitive imagination of the 

Greeks felt everywhere watching over the life and work of 

men. These three then, Zeus, Apollo, and' Athena, became 

the leading divinities of the Greek world. 

At the same time a further group of ancient nature spirits 420. Posei- 

, , . , , , „. . , don.Demeter. 

had risen to be great gods, each controllmg some special Dionysus, 
realm. In a brazen palace deep under the waters, Poseidon Artemis' 
ruled the sea. The ancient Earth-Mother, whom they called Hera, and 

Aphrodite 

Demeter,. still brought forth the produce of the soil. At the 
same time they looked also to another earth god, Dionysus, for 
the fruit of the grapevine, and they rejoiced in the wine which 
he gave them. An old moon spirit had now become Hermes 
the messenger of the gods, with winged feet, doing the bidding 
of the gods, but he was also the patron of the intercourse of 
men, and hence the god of trade and commerce. Some of the 
Greeks, however, in the old days, seeing the moon above the 
forest margin, had believed it to be a goddess, a divine huntress 
riding through the forests at night. They called her Artemis. 
Others, however, had fancied the moon to belong in the sky as 
the wife of Zeus, whom they called Hera, and she became the 
protectress of marriage. The Semitic goddess of love, whom 
we have met on the Fertile Crescent as Ishtar (§ 191), had 



2«0 



Ancient Times 



421. The 
Greek gods 
at first show 
human de- 
fects of 
character 



422. Greek 
beliefs about 
the dead 



now passed over from the Syrian cities by way of Cyprus, 
to become likewise the Greek goddess of love, whom the 
Greeks called Aphrodite. 

All these divinities and some others less important, the 
Greeks now pictured in human form. It was but natural, too, 
that they should be thought of as possessing human traits. 
Homer pictures to us the family quarrels between the august 
Zeus and his wife Hera, just as such things must have occurred 
in the household life of the Greeks, and certainly in a manner 
absurdly undignified for such exalted divinities. The Greeks 
thought of the gods therefore as showing decidedly human 
defects of character. They practiced all sorts of deceit and 
displayed many other human frailties. Such gods were not 
likely to require anything better in the character of men. 
Religion was therefore not yet an influence leading to good 
conduct and right character. In this particular, then, the 
Greeks were passing through an early stage of an uncom- 
pleted development, just such as we have found in the civili- 
zations of the Orient. 

One reason why the Greeks did not yet think that the gods 
required right conduct of men was their notion of life after 
death. They believed that all men passed at death into a 
gloomy kingdom beneath the earth (Hades), where the fate of 
good men did not differ from that of the wicked. Here ruled 
Pluto as king, and his wife, the goddess Persephone. As a 
special favor of the gods, the heroes, men of mighty and god- 
like deeds, were endowed with immortality and permitted to 
enjoy a life of endless bliss in the beautiful Elysian Fields, or 
the Islands of the Blest, somewhere in the Far West, toward 
the unexplored ocean. The Greeks seem to have brought with 
them from their earlier wanderings the custom of burning their 
dead. They continued this custom on reaching Greece, but 
they adopted also the ^gean usage of preserving the body as 
in Egypt and burying it. The primitive notion that the dead 
must be furnished with food and drink still survived. The 



Greek Civilization in the Age of the Kings 281 

tombs of the ancestors thus became sacred places where gifts of 
food and drink were regularly brought and offered to the dead. 

Every household in the little Greek towns felt that the safety 423. Lack of 
of the house was in the hands of Hestia, the goddess of the o^^riest's 
hearth. But in the Age of the Kings the symbols of the great 
gods were set up in every house, while in the dwelling of the 
king there was a special room which served as a kind of shrine 
for them. There was also an altar in the forecourt where sacri- 
fices could be offered under the open sky (Fig. 144). In so far 
as the gods had any dwellings at all, we see that they were in 
the houses of men, and there probably were no temples as yet. 
Here and there in some communities men were to be found 
who were thought to possess rare knowledge of the desires of 
the gods. As these men were more and more often consulted 
by those who felt ignorant of the proper ceremonies of sacri- 
fice and worship, such men gradually became priests. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 39. What important metal came in at the rise of Greek 
civilization? What had happened to the arts and crafts of the 
^geans? Did the Greeks possess any craftsmen.'* What do you 
think of the horses on the Greek vase of the Age of the Kings? 
Compare it with Middle Stone Age carving? From whom did the 
Greeks chiefly buy manufactured products? What can you tell 
about this commerce? What did it teach the Greeks? 

Section 40. What else did the Phoenicians bring in besides 
manufactured goods? Tell about the Phoenician alphabet. How did 
it reach Greece ? What is the origin of the word " alphabet " ? 
How far has the Phoenician alphabet spread? 

Section 41. Describe early Greek arms and warfare. What was 
the relation of valiant deeds and song ? Around what event did such 
songs cluster? Tell of Homer and the poems attributed to him. 

Section 42. How did the Homeric songs affect religion ? What 
can you say of Greek religion before the Homeric songs arose? 
Did the Greeks bring in some gods when they entered Greece? 
Name the leading Greek divinities, and tell something of each. 
Discuss Greek beliefs about the dead ; customs and places of worship. 




CHAPTER XI 

THE AGE OF THE NOBLES AND GREEK EXPANSION IN 
THE MEDITERRANEAN 

Section 43. The Disappearance of the Kings 
AND THE Leadership of the Nobles 



We have seen Greek civilization beginning under oriental 
influences. In its political development, however, the Greek 



424. Geo- 
graphical 
influences 

against a world showed striking differences from what we have seen 

union 01 all *^ 

Greeks in 
one nation 



in the Orient. There we watched the early city-states finally 



Note. The headpiece above is of an early Greek sea fight in the days of the 
kings. This Greek vase-painting shows us the Greek nobles in the days when 
they were taking to the water as pirates (§ 431). The warriors are armed as on 
land (see headpiece, p. 263). As to the model of the ships, see Fig. 162. Aris- 
tonothos, the artist who made this vase-painting, has inserted his name over the 
standard at the right, in the lower row, where the letters run to the right and drop 
down. It reads " Aristonothos made it." This is not only the earliest-signed vase, 
but is likewise the earliest-signed work of art, crude though it may be, in Europe. 
It shows us that the Greek artist was gaining increasing pride in his work, and 
it is one of the earliest signs of individuality in Greek history about 700 b. c. 

282 



The Age of the Nobles 283 

uniting into two large and powerful nations, one on the Nile 
and another on the Two Rivers. In Greece, however, there 
were influences which tended to prevent such a union of the 
Greeks into one nation. In the first place the country was cut 
up by mountain ridges and deep bays, so that the different 
communities were quite separated. The cities of Greece were 
likewise separated from their kindred in the islands and in 
Asia Minor. 

P^urthermore, no recollection of their former unity on the 425. Other 
grasslands survived, even in their oldest traditions. They had operating 
now lived so long in separated communities that they had ^frm^?t ^°^'*^ 
developed permanent local habits and local dialects, as differ- 
ent as those of North and South Germany or even more 
different than those between our own Louisiana and New 
England. The various Greek communities thus displayed such 
intense devotion to their own town and their own local gods 
that a union of all the Greek city-states into one nation, such 
as we have seen in the Orient, failed to take place. As a result 
of these separative influences we find in Greece after 1000 B.C. 
scores of little city-states such as we have already described 
(§ 390). Not only did the islands and the Greek city-states 
of Asia Minor fail to unite, but on the island of Crete alone 
there were more than fifty such small city-states. 

Four regions on the mainland of Greece, each forming a 426. The 
pretty clearly outlined geographical whole, like the peninsula Argosand 
of Laconia or that of Attica (see map, p. 264), permitted the Sparta 
union of city-states into a larger nation. The oldest of these 
four nations seems to have been Argos (map, p. 264). In this 
plain the town of Argos subdued the ancient strongholds of 
Mycenae and Tiryns (Figs. 144 and 145) and others in the vicin- 
ity, forming the nation of Argos and giving its name to the plain 
(Plate III, p. 276). In the same way the kings of Sparta con- 
quered the two peninsulas on the south of them and finally also 
the land of the Messehians on the west. The two kingdoms of 
Argos and Sparta thus held a large part of the Peloponnese. 



284 



Ancient Times 



427. Athens 
and Thebes 



428. Internal 
development 
of the Greek 
state con- 
trasted with 
the Orient 



429. The 

Greek state 
and the 
struggle 
toward 
democracy 



430. Rise 
of a noble 
class, the 
eupatrids 



In the Attic peninsula, likewise, the little city-kingdoms were 
slowly absorbed by Athens, which at last gained control of the 
entire peninsula. On the northern borders of Attica the region 
of Boeotia fell under the leadership of Thebes, but the other 
Boeotian cities were too strong to be wholly subdued. Boeotia, 
therefore, did not form a nation but a group of city-states in 
alliance, with Thebes at the head of the. alliance. Elsewhere 
no large and permanent unions were formed. Sparta and 
Athens, therefore, led the most important two unions among 
all the Greeks. Let it be borne in mind that such a nation 
remained a city-state in spite of its increased territory. The 
nation occupying the Attic peninsula was called Athens, and 
every peasant in Attica was called an Athenian. The city 
government of Athens covered the whole Attic peninsula. 

In the matter of governing such a little city-state the Greeks 
about 750 B.C. entered upon a new stage of their development, 
which was again very different from that which we have found 
in the Orient. However discontented the common people of 
an oriental state might become, their discontent never accom- 
plished more than the overthrow of one king and the enthrone- 
ment of another. The office of king was never abolished, nor 
did any other form of government than that of monarchy ever 
arise in the ancient East (§ 322). 

Among the Greeks, too, the common people struggled for 
centuries to better their lot. As we shall see, this long and 
bitter struggle finally resulted in giving the people in some 
Greek states so large a share in governing that the form of 
the government might be called democracy. This is a word 
of Greek origin, meaning " the rule of the people," and the 
Greeks were the first people of the ancient world to gain it. 

The cause of this struggle was not only the corrupt rule 
of the kings but also the oppression of the nobles. We have 
watched these men of wealth buying the luxuries of the 
Phoenician merchants. They now stood in the way, opposing 
the rights of the peasants. By fraud, unjust seizure of lands, 



The Age of the Nobles 285 

union of families in marriage, and many other influences, the 
strong men of ability and cleverness were able to enlarge their 
lands. Thus there had arisen a class of hereditary nobles — 
large landholders and men of wealth, called eupatrids. 

Their fields stretched for some miles around the city and 431. Politi- 

. 1 , . .„ X 1 1 11- ^'^ 3nd mili- 

its neighbonng villages. In order to be near the kmg or tary power of 
secure membership in the Council (§ 385) and control the ^ ^eupatn s 
government, these men often left their lands and lived in the 
city. Such was the power of the eupatrids that the Council 
finally consisted only of men of this class. Wealthy enough 
to buy costly weapons, with leisure for continual exercise in 
the use of arms, these nobles had also become the chief pro- 
tection of the State in time of war (§ 407). They were also 
continual marauders on their own account. As they grew 
more and more accustomed to the sea (headpiece, p. 282), they 
coasted from harbor to harbor, plundering and burning, and 
returned home laden with rich spoil. Piracy at last became the 
common calling of the nobles, and a great source of wealth. 

Thus grew up a sharp distinction between the city com- 432. Misery 
munity and the peasants living in the country. The country ness of the 
peasant was obliged to divide the family lands with his brothers. P^^^ants 
His fields were therefore small, and he was poor. He went 
about clad in a goatskin, and his labors never ceased. Hence 
he had no leisure to learn the use of arms, nor any way to 
meet the expense of purchasing them. He and his neighbors 
were therefore of small account in war (§ 407). Indeed, he 
was fortunate if he could struggle on and maintain himself 
and family from his scanty fields. Many of his neighbors sank 
into debt, lost their lands to the noble class, and themselves 
became day laborers for more fortunate men, or, still worse, 
sold themselves to discharge their debts and thus became 
slaves. These day laborers and slaves had no political rights 
and were not permitted to vote in the Assembly. 

If the peasant desired to exert any influence in government, 
he was obliged to go up to the city and attend the Assembly 



286 Ancient Times 

433. The of the people there. When he did so, he found but few of 
3!ie Assembly ^is fellows from the countryside gathered there — a dingy 

group, clad in their rough goatskins. The powerful Council 
in beautiful oriental raiment (§§ 394 and 395) was backed by the 
whole class of wealthy nobles, all trained in war and splendid 
in their glittering weapons. Intimidated by the powerful nobles, 
the meager Assembly, which had once been a muster of all the 
weapon-bearing men of the tribe, became a feeble gathering of 
a few peasants and lesser townsmen, who could gain no greater 
recognition of their old-time rights than the poor privilege of 
voting to concur in the actions already decided upon by the 
king and the Council. The peasant returned to his little farm 
and was less and less inclined to attend the Assembly at all. 

434. The It was, however, not alone the people whose rights the 
drsappea" noblcs were disregarding ; for they also began to consider them- 
ance of the selvcs the equals of the king, whose chief support in war they 
650 B.C.) were. The king could not carry on a war without them or 

control the state without their help. By 750 B.C. the office 
of the king was in some states nothing more than a name. 
While the king was in some cases violently overthrown, in 
most states the nobles established from among themselves cer- 
tain elective officers to take charge of matters formerly con- 
trolled by the king..- Thus in Athens they appointed a noble to 
be leader in war, while another noble was chosen as " archon," 
or ruler, to assist the king in attending to the increasing busi- 
ness of the State. Thus the Athenian king was gradually but 
peacefully deprived of his powers, until he became nothing 
more than the leader of the people in religious matters. In 
Sparta the power of the king was checked by the appointment 
of a second king, and on this plan Sparta continued to retain 
her kings. Elsewhere in the century, between 750 and 650 B.C., 
the kingship quite generally disappeared, although it lingered 
on in some states until long after this time. The result of the 
political and social struggle was thus the triumph of the nobles, 
who were henceforth in control in many states. 



The Age of the Nobles 287 

With the disappearance of the king, the royal castle (Fig. 1 44) 435. Survival 
was of course vacated. As it fell into decay, the shrines and hi the old "^ 
holy places which it contained (§ 423) were still protected and P^^^es 
revered as religious buildings, and, as we shall see in discussing 
architecture, they became temples. In this way the castle of the 
ancient Attic kings on the citadel mount, called the Acropolis 
of Athens (Figs. 182 and 183), was followed by the famous 
temples there. 



Section 44. Greek Expansion in the Age of 
THE Nobles 

The Age of the Nobles witnessed another great change in 436. Begin- 
Greek life. Sea-roving and piracy, as we have seen (§ 43 1), were merce^ancT"^' 
common amonpf the nobles. At length, as the Greek merchants shipbuilding 

^ *=> ' among the 

gradually took up sea trade, the demand for ships led the Greek Greeks 
mechanics to undertake shipbuilding. They built their new craft 
on Phoenician models (see Fig. 1 62, y^ and B), the only ones with 
which they were acquainted. When the Phoenician merchants 
entered the ^gean harbors they now found them more and 
more occupied by Greek ships. Especially important was the 
traffic between the Greek cities of the xA.siatic coast on the east 
and Attica and Euboea on the European side. Among the 
Asiatic Greeks it was the Ionian cities which led in this com- 
merce. The ^Fvgean waters gradually grew familiar to the 
Greek communities, until the sea routes became far easier lines 
of communication than roads through the same number of 
miles of forest and mountains (§ 330). 

The oppressive rule of the nobles, and the resulting impover- 437. Greek 
ishment of the peasants, was an important influence, leading the Black Sea 
the Greek farmers to seek new homes and new lands beyond 
the vEgean world. Greek merchants were not only trafficking 
with the northern vEgean, but their vessels had penetrated the 
great northern sea, which they called the " Pontus," known to 
us as the Black Sea (see map, p. 288). Their trading stations 



288 



Ancient Times 



438. Greek 
colonies in 
the East — 
southern Asia 
Minor and 
Cyprus 



among the descendants of the Stone Age peoples in these 
distant regions offered to the discontented farmers of Greece 
plenty of land with which to begin life over again. Before 
600 B. c. they girdled the Black Sea with their towns and settle- 
ments, reaching the broad grainfields along the lower Danube, 
and the iron mines of the old Hittite country on the south- 
eastern coast of the Black Sea (§ 360). But no such de- 
velopment of Greek genius took place in this harsher climate 





A B 

Fig. 162. An Early Greek Ship and the Phcenician Ship 
after which it was modeled 

The earliest ships in the Mediterranean, those of Egypt, were turned 
up at both ends (Fig. 41), and the early ^gean ships were copies of 
this Egyptian model (Fig. 154). The Phoenicians, however, introduced 
a change in the model, by giving their ships at the bow a sharp project- 
ing beak below water. Such a Phoenician ship used by the Assyrian 
king Sennacherib is shown here in a drawing from one of his palace 
reliefs {B). The Greeks did not adopt the old ^gean form, turned up 
at both ends, but took up the Phoenician form with beaked prow, as 
shown in the vase-paintings, from which the above drawing of an 
eighth-century Greek ship [A] has been restored 

of the North as we shall find in the ^gean. Not a single great 
artist or v/riter ever came from the North. Although the Pontus 
became the granary of Greece, it never contributed anything 
to the higher life of the Greeks. 

In the East, along the southern coasts of Asia Minor, Greek 
expansion was stopped by the Assyrian Sennacherib (§ 214) 
when he defeated a body of Greeks in Cilicia about 700 B.C., in 
the eariiest collision between the Hellenes and a great power of 
the oriental world. The Greek colonies of Cyprus long remained 



i 



The Age of the Nobles 289 

the easternmost outposts of the Greek world. In the South 
they found a friendly reception in Egypt, and there in the Nile 
Delta they were permitted to establish a trading city at Naucratis 
(Mistress of Ships), the predecessor of Alexandria. West of 
the Delta also they eventually founded Cyrene (map, p. 288). 

It was the unknown West, however, which became the Amer- 439. Dis- 
ica of the early Greek colonists. Many a Columbus pushed his the v^est 
ship into this strange region of mysterious dangers on the dis- 
tant borders of the world, where the heroes were believed to 
live in the Islands of the Blest. Looking westward from the 
western coast of Greece the seamen could discover the shores 
of the heel of Italy, only fifty miles distant. When they had 
once crossed to it, they coasted around Sicily and far into the 
West. Here was a new world. Although the Phoenicians were 
already there (§ 397), its discovery was as momentous for the 
Greeks as that of America for later Europe (see map, p. 288). 

By 750 B.C. their colonies appeared in this new Western 440. Greek 
world, and within a century they fringed southern Italy from the^West— 
the heel to a point well above the instep north of Naples, so southern 
that this region of southern Italy came to be known as " Great 
Greece " (see map, p. 484). Here the Greek colonists looked 
northward to the hills crowned by the rude settlements which 
were destined to become Rome. They little dreamed that this in- 
significant town would yet rule the world, making even the proud 
cities of their homeland its vassals. As the Greeks were superior 
in civilization to all the other dwellers in Italy, the civilized history 
of that great peninsula begins with the advent of the Hellenes. 
They first brought in such things as writing, literature, archi- 
tecture, and art (Section 76, Fig. 219, and Plate VII, p. 560). 

The Greek colonists crossed over also to Sicily (Plate VII), 441. Sicily 
where they drove out the Phoenician trading posts except at p^ar West 
the western end of the island, where the Phoenicians held their 
own. These Greek colonists in the West shared in the higher 
life of the homeland ; and Syracuse, at the southeast corner of 
the Island of Sicily, became at one time the most cultivated, 



290 



Ancient Times 



442. Racial 
aspects of 
ancient colo- 
nization in 
the Medi- 
terranean 



443. Tend- 
ency toward 
creation of 
a Mediter- 
ranean world ; 
what civiliza- 
tion was to 
conquer it ? 



as well as the most powerful, city of the Greek world. At 
Massilia (Marseilles), on the coast of later France, the Western 
Greeks founded a town which controlled the trade up the 
Rhone valley ; and they reached over even to the Mediterranean 
coasts of Spain, attracted by the silver mines of Tartessus. 

Thus, under the rule of the nobles, the Greeks expanded till 
they stretched from the Black Sea along the north shore of the 
Mediterranean almost to the Atlantic. In this imposing move- 
ment we recognize a part of the far outstretched western wing 
of the Indo-European line (see § 243) ; but at the same time we 
remember that in the Phoenician Empire of Carthage, the Semite 
has likewise flung out his western wing along the southern 
Mediterranean, facing the Indo-European peoples on the 7iorth 
(Fig. 112 and § 397 ; see map, p. 288). 

This wide expansion of Greeks and Phoenicians (§ 397) 
tended at last to produce a great Mediterranean world. Was 
the leading civilization in that Mediterranean world to be Greek, 
springing from the Greeks and their colonies, or was it to be 
oriental, carried by the Phoenician galleys and spread by their 
far-reaching settlements ? That was the great question, and its 
answer was to depend on how Greek civilization succeeded in 
its growth and development at home in the ^gean, to which 
we must now turn. 



Section 45. Greek Civilization in the Age 
OF the Nobles 



athletic 
games 



444. influ- We have already noticed the tendencies which kept the 

toward ^uni\y^ Greek States apart and prevented their union as a single 
nation (§ 425). There were now, on the other hand, influ- 
ences which tended toward unity. Among such influences were 
the contests in arms and the athletic games, which arose from 
the early custom of honoring the burial of a hero with such 
celebrations. In spite of the local rivalries at such contests, 
a sentiment of unity was greatly encouraged by the celebration 



The Age of the Nobles 291 

and common management of these athletic games. They finally 
came to be practiced at stated seasons in honor of the gods. 
As early as 776 b.c. such contests were celebrated as public 
festivals at Olympia.^ Repeated every four years, they finally 
aroused the interest and participation of all Greece. 

Religion also became a strong influence toward unity, be- 445. Greek 
cause there were some gods at whose temples all the Greeks by religious 
worshiped. The different city-states therefore formed several J°^p'jj|c. 
religious councils, made up of representatives from the various tyonies) 
Greek cities concerned. They came together at stated periods, 
and in this way each city had a voice in such joint management 
of the temples. These councils were among the nearest ap- 
proaches to representative government ever devised in the an- 
cient world. The most notable of them were the council for 
the control of the Olympic games, another for the famous 
sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (Fig. 172), and also the council 
for the great annual feast of Apollo in the island of Delos. 

These representatives spoke various Greek dialects at their 446. Greek 
meetings. They could understand each other, however, just as "hered by 
in our own land a citizen from Maine understands another from language 
Louisiana, though they may laugh at each other's oddities of 
speech. Their common language thus helped to bind together 
the people of the many different Greek cities. A sentiment of 
unity also arose under the influence of the Homeric songs 
(§ 410) with which every Greek was familiar — a common 
inheritance depicting all the Greeks united against the Asiatic 
city of Troy (Fig. 151). 

Thus bound together by ties of custom, religion, language, 447. Barba- 
and common traditions, the Greeks gained a feeling of race Hdfenes 
unity, which set them apart from other races. They called all 
men not of Greek blood " barbarians," not originally a term of 
reproach for the non-Greeks. Then the Greek sense of unity 
found expression in the first all-inclusive term for themselves. 

1 Every schoolboy knows that these Olympic games have- been revived in 
modern times as an international project. 



292 



Ancient Times 



» 



448. Greek 
unity and 
trade 




They gradually came to call themselves " Hellenes," and found 
pleasure in the belief that they had all descended from a com- 
mon ancestor called Hellen. But it should be clearly understood 
that this new designation did not represent a Greek nation or 
state, but only the group of Greek-speaking peoples or states, 
often at war with one another. 

The lack of political unity evident in such wars was also very 
noticeable in trade relations. No merchant of one city had any 
legal rights in another city where he was not a citizen. Even 
his life was not safe, for no city made any laws protecting the 
stranger. He could secure protection only by appealing to the 
old desert custom of '' hospitality," after he had been received 
by a friendly citizen as a guest. For the reception of any stran- 
ger who might have no such friend to be his host, a city might 
appoint a citizen to act as its official host. These primitive 
arrangements are a revelation of the strong local prejudice of 
each Greek city. The most fatal defect in Greek character was 
the inability of the various states to forget their local differ- 
ences and jealousies and to unite into a common federation or 
great nation including all Greeks.^ 

In spite of oriental luxuries, like gaudy clothing and wavy 
oriental wigs (§ 395), Greek life in the Age of the Nobles was 
still rude and simple. The Greek cities of which we have been 
talking were groups of dingy sun-dried-brick houses, with nar- 
row wandering streets which we would call alleys. On the 
height where the palace or castle of the king had once stood 
was an oblong building of brick, like the houses of the town 
below. In front it had a porch with a row of wooden posts, and 
it was covered by a " peaked " roof with a triangular gable at 
each end. This rude building was the earliest Greek temple. 
As for sculpture in this age, the figure of a god consisted merely 



1 We may recall here how slow were the thirteen colonies of America to sup- 
press local pride sufficiently to adopt a constitution uniting all thirteen into a 
nation. It was local differences similar to those among the Greeks which after- 
ward caused our Civil War. 



The Age of the Nobles 293 

of a wooden post with a rough-hewn head at the top. When 
draped with a garment it could be made to serve its purpose. 

While there were still very few who could read, there was 450. Rise of 
here and there a man who owned and read a written copy of ture; moral 
Homer. Men told their children quaint fables, representing the P^lotLm 
animals acting like human creatures, and by means of these tales 
with a moral made it clear what a man ought or ought not to 
do. The Greeks were beginning to think about human conduct. 
The old Greek word for virtue no longer meant merely valor in 
war, but also kindly and unselfish conduct toward others. Duty 
towards a man's own country was now beginning to be felt in 
the sentiment we call patriotism. Right conduct, as it seemed 
to some, was even required by the gods, and it was finally no 
longer respectable for the nobles to practice piracy (§ 431). ^^-^^^ 

/Under these circumstances it was natural that a new litera- 451. Trans- 
ture should arise, as the Greeks began to discuss themselves and nterary inter- 
their own conduct. The old Homeric singers never referred to ^^^^fj]"^ 
themselves ; they never spoke of their own lives. They were 
absorbed in describing the valiant deeds of their heroes who 
had died long before. The heroic world of glorious achievement 
in which the vision of these early singers moved had passed 
away, and with it passed their art. Meanwhile the problems of 
the present began to press hard upon the minds of men ; the 
peasant farmer's distressing struggle for existence (see § 432) 
made men conscious of very present needs. Their own lives 
became a great and living theme. 

The voices that once chanted the hero songs therefore died 452. Hesiod 
away, and now men heard the first voice raised in Europe on earliest cry 
behalf of the poor and the humble. Hesiod, an obscure farmer •^gj^^'^'jj 
under the shadow of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, sang of the Europe (750- 

700 B.C.) 

dreary and hopeless life of the peasant — of his otvn life as 
he struggled on under a burden too heavy for his shoulders. 
We even hear how his brother Persis seized the lands left by 
their father, and then bribed the judges to confirm him in 
their possession. 



294 Ancient Times 

This earliest European protest against the tyrannies of 
wealthy town life was raised at the very moment when across 
the corner of the Mediterranean the once nomad Hebrews were 
passing through the same experience (see §§ 303-304). The 
voice of Hesiod raising the cry for social justice in Greece 
sounds like an echo from Palestine. But we should notice that 
in Palestine the cry for social justice resulted finally in a religioji 
of brotherly kindness, whereas in Greece it resulted in demo- 
cratic i/istitiitions, the rule of the people who refused longer to 
submit to the oppressions of the few and powerful. In the n^xt 
chapter we shall watch the progress of the struggle by which 
the rule of the people came about. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 43. Were the geographical influences in Greece favor- 
able to a political union of all Greeks ? How many important unions 
arose ? Name them and describe the leading two. How did the polit- 
ical development of the Orient differ from that of Greece.'* What is 
a democracy .'' Where did democracies first arise '^ What was the atti- 
tude of the nobles toward democracy ? Describe their political power ; 
their military power. What was the situation of the peasants ? What 
happened to the Assembly? What happened to the kings? What 
became of the shrines in the palace ? 

SectiOxN 44. On what models did the Greeks build their first 
ships? Tell about Greek colonization in the North; in the East; 
in the South ; in the West. What competing race had already col- 
onized in the West ? To what extent had the world of sea commerce 
thus expanded? 

Section 45. Discuss athletic games as an influence toward unity. 
How did religion favor Greek unity? language? What names for 
Greeks and non-Greeks arose ? What can you say about the attitude 
of Greek cities toward Greeks who were not citizens ? Describe the 
earliest Greek temples. Were literature and reading now common ? 
What thoughts about conduct were arising? As men began to think 
about themselves rather than the ancient heroes, what was the effect 
upon literature? Tell about Hesiod. To what struggle were the feel- 
ings of such men as Hesiod leading ? 



%.^^ 





^^ 



IIIIIWI i 



^^^y'^ ^'^^" "■"]■■■ . r'^'^^^'MWIillj^^: 



•■1 



>^ <• 






^ 



CHAPTER XII 

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE AGE OF 
THE TYRANTS 



Section 46. The Industrial and Commercial 
Revolution 

The remarkable colonial expansion of the Greeks, together 453- Growth 
with the growth of industries in the home cities, led to profound commerce 
changes. The new colonies not only had needs of their own, ^" ^^ "^ ^ 
but they also had dealings with the inland, which finally opened 
up extensive regions of Europe as a market for Greek wares. 
The home cities at once began to meet this demand for goods 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the ruins of the temple of Hera at 
Olympia, the oldest temple in Greece. The remains of columns which surrounded 
the outside of the building (cf. Fig. 185) are of different sizes and proportions ; for 
they were inserted at different times to replace the old wooden ones with which 
the temple was first built (§ 449). They are of the Doric style (Fig. 167). The 
walls were of sun-dried brick (§ 449), and have therefore disappeared. In their 
fall they covered up the magnificent statue of Hermes by Praxiteles (Fig. 187), 
which was thus preserved until modem excavators found it. 

295 



296 



Ancient Times 



of all sorts. The Ionian cities led the way as formerly, but the 
islands also, and finally the Greek mainland, felt the new im- 
pulse. Corinth first (Fig. 163), and then Athens, began to share 




Fig. 163. The Isthmus of Corinth, the Link between the 
Peloponnesus and Northern Greece 

The observer stands on the hills south of ancient Corinth (out of range 
on the left) and looks northeastward along the isthmus, on both sides 
of which the sea is visible. On the left (west) we see the tip of the Gulf 
of Corinth (see map, p. 352), and on the right (east) the Saronic Gulf. 
The commerce across this isthmus from the Orient to the West made 
the Gulf of Corinth an important center of traffic westward, and Corinth 
early became a flourishing commercial city. Through this sole gateway of 
the Peloponnesus (see map, p. 264) passed back and forth for centuries the 
leading men of Greece, and especially the armies of Sparta, some 
60 miles distant (behind the observer). The faint white line in the middle 
of the isthmus is the modern canal ^- a cut from sea to sea, about 4 miles 
long and nearly 200 feet deep at the crest of the watershed 



in the increased Greek trade. Ere long the commercial fleets of 
the Hellenes were threading their way along all the coasts of the 
northern, western, and southeastern Mediterranean, bearing to 



The Industrial Revolution 



297 



distant communities 
Greek metal work, 
woven goods, and pot- 
tery. They brought 
back either raw ma- 
terials and foodstuffs, 
such as grain, fish, 
and amber, or fin- 
ished products like 
the magnificent uten- 
sils in bronze from 
the cities of the 
Etruscans in north- 
ern Italy (§787 and 
Fig. 231). At the 
yearly feast and mar- 
ket on the island of 
Delos the Greek 
householder found 
the Etruscan bronzes 
of the West side by 
side with the gay car- 
pets of the Orient. 

To satisfy the in- 
creasing demands of 
trade, and to meet 
Phoenician competi- 
tion, the Greek crafts- 
men greatly improved 
their work. During 
the seventh century 
Greek industries were 
still unequal to those 
of the Orient, but 
after 600 B.C. the 




mmMMm 



Fig. 164. An Athenian Painted Vase 
OF THE Early Sixth Century b.c. 

This magnificent work (over 30 inches high) 
was found in an Etruscan tomb in Italy (see 
map, p. 484), whither it had been exported by 
the Athenian makers in the days of Solon 
(§§ 468 ff.). It is signed by the potter Ergo- 
timos, who gave the vase its beautiful shape, 
and also by the painter Clitias, whose skillful 
hand executed the sumptuous painted scenes 
extending in bands entirely around the vase. 
On the wide distribution of the works of these 
two artists see § 456. These decorations rep- 
resent the final emancipation of the Greek 
painter from oriental influences and the 
triumph of his own imagination in depicting 
scenes from Greek stories of the gods and 
heroes. Before the end of this century (the 
sixth) the vase-painters had begun to blacken 
the whole vase and then to put on their paint- 
ings in red on the black background. This 
enabled them to add details in black within 
the figures, and greatly improved their work 
(see Fig. 170). The Greeks were now the best 
draftsmen in the world. Note the progress 
in two hundred years (compare above horses 
and those in Fig. 155) 



454. Greek 
industry be- 
gins to shake 
off oriental 
influence 



298 



Ancient Times 



455. Greeks 
introduce 
industrial 
slave labor 



456. Ex- 
pansion of 
Athenian 
commerce 



457. Im- 
provement 
and enlarge- 
ment Q^ ships 



Greeks began to surpass their oriental teachers. In Samos 
they learned to make hollow bronze castings, like those of the 
Egyptians, They painted pottery with their own decorative 
scenes, taken from the lives of gods and men, and these more 
and more displaced the rows of oriental figures, half animal, 
half human (Fig. 164). Thus in industry Greece began to 
emancipate herself from the Orient. 

At the same time, growing trade obliged every Greek crafts- 
man to enlarge his small shop — once, perhaps, only large 
enough to supply the wants of a single estate. Unable to find 
the necessary workmen, the proprietor who had the means 
bought slaves, trained them to the work, and thus enlarged 
his litde stall into a factory with a score of hands. Henceforth 
industrial slave labor became an important part of Greek life. 

Athens entered the field of industry much later than the 
Ionian cities, but when she did so, she won victories not less 
decisive than her -later triumphs in art, literature, philosophy, 
or war. The potters early required an extensive quarter of the 
town to accommodate their workshops (see plan, p. 352). The 
Athenian factories must have assumed a size quite unprece- 
dented in the Greek world, for of the painted Greek vases — 
discovered by excavation — which are signed by the artist, 
about half are found to have come from only six factories at 
Athens. It is not a little impressive at the present day to see 
the modern excavator opening tombs far toward the interior of 
Asia Minor and taking out vases bearing the signature of the 
same Athenian vase-painter whose name you may also read on 
vases dug out of the Nile Delta in northern Africa, or taken 
from tombs in the cemeteries of the Etruscan cities of Italy 
(Fig. 164). We suddenly gain a picture of the Athenian manu- 
facturer in touch with a vast commercial domain extending far 
across the ancient world. 

Soon the shipbuilder, responding to the growing commerce, 
began to build craft far larger than the old '' fifty-oar " gal- 
leys. The new " merchantmen " were driven only by sails, an 



The Industrial Revolution 299 

Egyptian invention of ages before (Fig. 41). They were so large 
that they could no longer be drawn up on the strand as before. 
Hence sheltered harbors were necessary, and for the same 
reason the anchor was now invented. The protection of such 
merchant ships demanded more effective warships, and the dis- 
tinction arose between a '' man-o'-war," or battleship, and a 
'' merchantman." Corinth boasted the production of the first 
decked warships, a great improvement, giving the warriors 
above more room and better footing, and protecting the oars- 
men below. For warships must be independent of the wind, 
and hence they were still propelled by oars. The oarsmen were 
arranged in three rows, three men on the same bench, each 
man wielding an oar, and thus the power of an old " fifty-oar " 
could be multiplied by three without much increasing the size 
of the craft. These innovations were all in common use by 
500 B.C. With their superior equipment on the sea, and the 
marked improvement of their industries, the Hellenes were 
soon beating the Phoenicians in the Mediterranean markets. 

Meantime Greek business life had entered upon a new epoch 458. Precious 
due to the introduction of coined money. From the peoples of ^^nageTn 
inner Asia Minor the lonians had learned to use the precious ^}^ Orient 

^ ^ (700 B.C.) 

metals by weight in making business payments after the orien- 
tal manner (§ 189). The basis of weight was the Babylonian 
" mina." Sixty such minas (pounds) made a talent, and a 
talent of silver was worth about $1125. Not long after 700 B.C., 
the kings of Lydia in Asia Minor (see map, p. 264) began to 
cut up silver into lumps of a fixed weight, small enough to be 
of convenient size and value. These they stamped with some 
symbol of the king or State to show that the State guaranteed 
their value, and such pieces formed the earliest-known coins 
(Fig. 165). 

-<, The Ionian cities soon took over this great convenience, and 459. Adop- 
it quickly passed thence to the islands and the European age by the 
Greeks. The Athenians divided the mina of silver into a hun- Greeks (early 

,, seventh cen- 

dred parts. A lump of silver weighing the hundredth part of tury b.c.) 



300 



Ancient Times 




Fig. 165. Specimens ILLUSTRATING THE 
Beginning of Coinage 



a mina was worth from eighteen to 
twenty cents. This became the ordi- 
nary small unit of value, and it still 
survives as such for large sections 
of Europe in the French franc, 
Italian li?'a, and Austrian krone, all 
worth somewhat less than twenty 
cents (cf. § 790). The Athenians 
called this coin a drach7na, meaning 
a '' handful," because it was equal 
m value to a " handful " of small 
change consisting of little rods of 
iron or copper used by the common 
people, like our cop- 
per cents. Our Amer- 
ican dollar is simply 
five of these drachmas, 
and the Athenians 
themselves issued a 
four-drachma piece 
(Fig. 165, 4) which 
served as their dol- 
lar. The purchasing 
power of a drachma 
was in ancient times 
very much greater 
than in our day. For 
example, a sheep cost 
one drachma, an ox 
five drachmas, and 



These are rough lumps of silver such as 

were long before used in the Orient (§ 189), 

flattened by the pressure of the stamp. Two 

of the examples (/ and 2) are marked by 

the bench tool which held the lump while 

the stamp was struck upon it. This defect 

was slowly overcome, and the coins became 

round as the stamp itself was made round 

instead of square. 7, both sides of a Lydian 

coin (§ 458) (about 550 B.C.) ; 2, both sides of 

a coin of the Greek island of Chios (500 B.C.), 

showing how the Greeks followed the Lydian model (/) ; j, both sides of 

a Carian coin of Cnidus (650-550 B.C.), an example of the square stamp ; 

4, both sides of a four-drachma piece of Athens (sixth century B.C.), 

bearing head of goddess Athena and an owl with olive branch (square 

stamp). The inscription contains the first three letters of "Athens" 



The Industrial Revohition 30 1 

a landowner with an income of five hundred drachmas ($100) 
a year was considered a wealthy man. 

Greek wealth had formerly consisted of lands and flocks, 460. Rise of 
but now men began to accumulate capital in money. Loans class' 
were made and the use of interest came in from the Orient. 
The usual rate was 18 per cent yearly. Men who could never 
have hoped for wealth as farmers were now growing rich. For 
the growing industries and the commercial ventures on the seas 
rapidly created fortunes among a class before obscure. There 
arose thus a prosperous industrial and commercial middle class 
who demanded a voice in the government. They soon became 
a political power of much influence, and the noble class were 
obliged to consider them. At the beginning of the sixth century 
B.C. even a noble like Solon could say, " Money makes the man." 

The prosperity we have sketched was still insufficient to 461. Greek 
produce large cities as we now have them. Athens and Corinth estates 
probably had about 25,000 inhabitants each. In spite of com- 
mercial prosperity the Greeks were still dependent on agricul- 
ture as their greatest source of income. But here again the 
farms and estates were from our point of view very small. 
The largest farms contained not over a hundred acres, while 
a man who had fifty acres was classed among the rich. 

Section 47. Rise of the Democracy and the 
Age of the Tyrants 

While the prosperous capitalistic class was thus arising, the 462. Decline 
condition of the peasant on his lands grew steadily worse. His antry 
fields were dotted with stones, each the sign of a mortgage, 
which the Greeks were accustomed to mark in this way. 
The wealthy creditors were foreclosing these mortgages and 
taking the lands, and the unhappy owners were being sold 
into foreign slavery or were fleeing abroad to escape such 
bonds. The nobles in control did nothing as a class to im- 
prove the situation; on the contrary, they did all in their 



302 



Ancient Times 



463. Power 
of the people 
increased by 
prosperity of 
the commer- 
cial class and 
by military 
changes 



464. Dis- 
union among 
nobles and 
rise of 
tyrants 



465. The 

tyrant and 
public opin- 
ion of his 
office 



power to take advantage of the helplessness of the peasants 
and small farmers (see § 432). 

But new enemies now opposed the noble class. In the first 
place, the new men of fortune (§ 460) were bitterly hostile to 
the nobles; in the second place, the improvement in Greek 
industries had so cheapened all work in metal that it was 
possible for the ordinary man to purchase weapons and a 
suit of armor. Moreover, the development of tactics under 
the leadership of the Spartans had produced close masses of 
spearmen, each mass (phalanx) standing like an unbroken wall 
throughout the battle (cf. Fig. 87). The war chariot of the 
individual hero of ancient times could not penetrate such a 
battle line. The chariot disappeared and was seen only in 
chariot races. These changes increased the importance of the 
ordinary citizen in the army and therefore greatly increased the 
power of the lower classes in the State. 

At the same time the nobles were far from united. Serious 
feuds between the various noble families often divided them 
into hostile factions. The leader of such a faction among the 
nobles often placed himself at the head of the dissatisfied people 
in real or feigned sympathy with their cause. Both the peasants 
and the new commercial class of citizens often rallied around 
such a noble leader. Thus supported, he was able to over- 
come and expel his rivals among the noble class and to gain 
undisputed control of the State. In this way he became the 
ruler of the State. 

Such a ruler was in reality a king, but the new king differed 
from the kings of old in that he had no royal ancestors and 
had seized the control of the State by violence. The people 
did not reverence him as of ancient royal lineage, and while 
they may have felt gratitude to him, they felt no loyalty. The 
position of such a ruler always remained insecure. The Greeks 
called such a man a " tyrant," which was not at that time 
a term of reproach, as it is with us. The word "tyranny" 
was merely a term for the high office held by such a ruler. 



The Industrial Revoltction 303 

Nevertheless, the instinctive feeling of the Greeks was that 
they were no longer free under such a prince, and the slayer 
of a tyrant was regarded as a hero and a savior of the people. 

By 650 B.C. such rulers had begun to appear, but it was es- 466. Age of 
pecially the sixth century (from 600 to 500 b. c.) which we may (sfxth^cen-^ 
call the Age of the Tyrants. They arose chiefly in the Ionian tury^.c.) 
cities of Asia Minor and the islands ; also Euboea, Athens, 
Corinth, and the colonies of Sicily — that is, in all the progres- 
sive Greek city-states where the people had gained power by 
commercial prosperity. Their rise was one of the direct con- 
sequences of the growing power of the people, and in spite 
of public opinion about them, they were the first champions 
of democracy. Such men as Periander of Corinth and Pisis- 
tratus of Athens looked after the rights of the people, curbed 
the nobles, gave great attention to public works like harbor 
improvements, state buildings, and temples, and cultivated art, 
music, and literature. 

Hitherto all law, so long ago reduced to writing in the 467. Earliest 
Orient (Fig. 93), had been a matter of oral tradition in Greece. Greek codes 
It was very easy for a judge to twist oral law to favor the ^^'^^ 
man who gave him the largest present (§ 452). The people 
were now demanding that the inherited oral laws be put into 
writing (Fig. 166). After a long struggle the Athenians se- 
cured such a written code, arranged by a man named Draco, 
about 624 B.C. It was an exceedingly severe code — so severe, 
in fact, that the adjective " Draconic " has passed into our 
language as a synonym for '^harsh." 

Meantime the situation in Athens was much complicated by 468. Foreign 
hostilities with neighboring powers. The merchants of Megara of A^hens^"^ 
had seized the island of Salamis, overlooking the port of 
Athens (Fig. 177). The loss of Salamis and the failure of the 
nobles to recover it aroused intense indignation among the Athe- 
nians. Then a man of the old family to which the ancient kings 
of Athens had belonged, a noble named Solon, who had gained 
wealth by many a commercial venture on the seas, roused his 



304 



Ancient Times 



countrymen by fiery verses, calling upon the Athenians not to 
endure the shame of such a loss. Salamis was recovered, and 
Solon gained great popularity with all classes of Athenians. 






»4 \^H.. 











Fig. 1 66. Ruins of the Ancient Courthouse of Gortyna and 
THE Early Greek Code of Laws engraved on its Walls 

This hall at Gortyna in Crete, dating from the sixth century B.C., was 
a circular building about 140 feet across, which served as a court- 
house. If any citizen thought himself unjustly treated, he could appeal 
to the great code engraved in twelve columns on the inside of the stone 
wall of the building. It covers the curved surface of the wall for about 
30 feet, but extends only as high as would permit it to be read easily. 
It forms the longest Greek inscription now surviving. This code shows 
a growing sense of justice toward a debtor and forbids a creditor to 
seize a debtor's tools or furniture for debt ; this illustrates the tendency 
among the Greeks in the age of Solon (§ 469) 



469. Solon The result was Solon's election as archon (§ 434) in 594 B.C. 

archon; his ^^ ^^^ given full power to improve the evil condition of the 

^"fomT^ peasants. He declared void all mortgages on land and all 

claims of creditors which endangered the liberty of a citizen. 



The Industrial RevohUion 305 

But Solon was a true statesman, and to the demands of the 
lower classes for a new apportionment of lands held by the 
nobles he would not yield. He did, however, set a limit to 
the amount of land which a noble might hold. 

Solon also made a law that anyone who, like Hesiod (§ 452), 470. Solon's 
had lost a lawsuit, could appeal the case to a jury of citizens of laws 
over thirty years of age selected by lot. This change and some 
others greatly improved a citizen's chance of securing justice. 
Solon's laws were all written, and they formed the first Greek 
code of laws by which all free men were given equal rights 
in the courts. Some of these laws have descended to our 
own time and are still in force. 

Furthermore, Solon proclaimed a new constitution which 471. Solon's 
gave to all a voice in the control of the State. It made but "ution 
few changes. It recognized four classes of citizens, graded 
according to the amount of their income. The wealthy nobles 
were the only ones who could hold the highest offices, and the 
peasants were permitted to hold only the lower offices. The 
government thus remained in the hands of the nobles, but 
the humblest free citizen could now be assured of the right 
to vote in the assembly of the people. 

Solon is the first great Greek statesman of whom we obtain 472. Esti- 
an authentic picture, chiefly through his surviving poems. The "^^ ^ ° 
leading trait of his character was moderation, combined with 
unfailing decision. When all expected that he would make 
himself " tyrant " he laid down his expiring archonship with- 
out a moment's hesitation and left Athens for several years, 
to give his constitution a fair chance to work. 

Solon saved Attica from a great social catastrophe, and it 473. Failure 
was largely due to his wise reforms that Athens achieved her work to"pre- 
industrial and commercial triumphs. But his constitution gave ^fg^^^g'^f^ 
the prosperous commercial class no right to hold the leading in Attica 
offices of government. They continued the struggle for power. 
Hence Solon's work, though it deferred the humiliation, could 
not save the Athenian State from subjection to the tyrant. 



3o6 



Ancient Times 



474. Pisis- 
tratus, tyrant 
of Athens 
(540- 

528 B.C.) 



475. Fall of 
the sons of 
Pisistratus 



476. The 

reforms of 
Clisthenes 
reduce the 
power of 
the nobles 



477. Ostra- 
cism 



Returning from exile, backed by an army of hired soldiers, 
Pisistratus, a member of one of the powerful noble families, 
finally held control of the Athenian State. He ruled with 
great sagacity and success, and many of the Athenians gave 
him sincere support. Having built a war fleet of probably forty- 
eight ships, he seized the mouth of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). 
This control of the gateway to the Black Sea proved of enor- 
mous value to Athens in later days (§ 616). He carried 
out many public improvements at Athens, and transferred to 
the city the old peasant spring feast of Dionysus, from which 
were yet to come the theater and the great dramas of Athens 
(§ 484). Athenian manufactures and commerce flourished as 
never before, and when Pisistratus died (in the same year as 
Cyrus the Persian, 528 B.C.) he had laid a foundation to which 
much of the later greatness of Athens was due. 

In spite of their great ability, the sons of Pisistratus, Hip- 
parchus and Hippias, were unable to overcome the prejudice of 
the people against a ruler on whom they had not conferred 
authority. One of the earliest exhibitions of Greek patriotism 
is the outburst of enthusiasm at Athens when two youths, Har- 
modius and Aristogiton (Fig. 1 69), at the sacrifice of their own 
lives, struck down one of the tyrants (Hipparchus). Hippias, 
the other one, was eventually obliged to flee. Thus, shortly 
before 500 B.C., Athens was freed from her tyrants. 

The people were now able to gain new power against the 
nobles by the efforts of Clisthenes, a noble friendly to the lower 
classes. He broke up the old tribal divisions on the basis of 
blood relationship, and established purely local lines of division. 
He thus cut up the old noble clans and assigned the fragments 
to different local divisions, where they were in the minority. 
This prevented the nobles from acting together and broke 
their power. 

In order to avoid the rise of a new tyrant, Clisthenes estab- 
lished a law that once a year the people might by vote declare 
any prominent citizen dangerous to the State and banish him 



The Industrial Revolution 307 

for ten years. To cast his vote against a man, a citizen had 
only to pick up one of the pieces of broken pottery lying 
about the market place, write upon it the name of the citizen 
to be banished, and deposit it in the voting urn. As such 
a bit of pottery was called an '' ostracon " (headpiece, p. 336), 
to " ostracize " a man (literally to '' potsherd " him) meant to 
interrupt his political career by banishment. Although the 
nobles were still the only ones to whom the high offices of 
government were open, the possession of other forms of 
wealth besides land gave a citizen important political rights, 
and Athens had thus (about 500 B.C.) gained a form of gov- 
ernment giving the people a high degree of power. The State 
was in large measure a democracy. 

Meantime Sparta also had greatly increased in power. The 478. Ex- 
Spartans had pushed their military successes until they held sparta^foun- 
over a third of the Peloponnesian peninsula. The result was dation of the 

Spartan 

that long before 500 b.c. the Spartans had forced the neigh- "league" 
boring states into a combination, the " Spartan league," which 
included nearly the whole of the Peloponhese. As the leader of 
this league, Sparta was the most powerful state in Greece. It 
had no industries, and it therefore did not possess the prosper- 
ous commercial class which had elsewhere done so much to over- 
throw the nobles and bring about the rise of the tyrants. For 
this and other reasons Sparta had escaped the rule of a tyrant. 
While it had divided the power of its king by appointing two 
kings to rule jointly, it was opposed to the rule of the people, and 
it looked with a jealous eye on the rising democracy of Athens. 

Section 48. Civilization of the Age of 
THE Tyrants 



Although the nobles of Athens had been forced to yield 479. The 
much of their political power to the people, nevertheless, as we Jlnue^to^be" 
have seen, they still held the exclusive risrht to be elected to the the social 

■' ^ leaders; ath 

important offices in the government. They continued also to letic games 



3o8 



Ancient Times 



480. Edu- 
cation 



481. Music, 
instrumental 



be the leaders in all those matters which we call social. They 
created the social life of the time, and they were the prominent 
figures on all public occasions. The multitudes which thronged 
to the public games looked down at the best-bom youths of 
Greece contesting for the prizes in the athletic matches (§ 444), 
and the wealthier nobles put the swiftest horses into the chariot 
races. To the laurel wreath which w^as granted the winner at 
the Olympian games Athens added a prize of five hundred 
drachmas when the winner was an Athenian. He was also 
entitled to take his meals at tables maintained by the State. 
Not seldom the greatest poets of the time, especially Pindar 
(§ 482), celebrated the victors in triumphant verses. 

In the matter of education, noble youths might be found 
spending the larger part of the day practicing in the public 
inclosure devoted to athletic exercises. To be sure, writing 
was now so common that a young man could not afford to 
be without it, and hence he submitted to some instruction in 
this art — a discipline which he was probably very reluctant to 
exchange for the applause of the idlers gathered around the 
gymnastic training ground. The women had no share in either 
the education or the social life of the men, and one of the great- 
est weaknesses of Greek civilization was the very limited part 
played by women in the life of the nation. 

The education of the time was not complete without some in- 
struction also in music. It was in the Age of the Tyrants that 
the music of Greece rose to the level of a real art. A system of 
writing musical notes, meaning for music what the alphabet meant 
for literature, now arose. The flute had been brought from 
Egypt to Crete in early times, and from the Cretans the Greeks 
had received it. Long a favorite instrument, it was now much 
more cultivated, and one musician even wrote a composition for 
the flute which was intended to tell the story of Apollo's fight 
with the dragon of Delphi. The lyre, which formerly had but 
four strings, was now made with eight, and compositions for the 
lyre alone were popular. Either of these instruments might be 



The hidicstrial Revolution 309 

played as the accompaniment of song, or both together, with 
choruses of boys and girls. Here we have the beginnings of 
orchestral music as the accompaniment of choruses. 

Music had a great influence on the literature of the age, 482. Lyric po- 
for the poets now began to write verses to be sung with and Sappho'^ 
the music of the lyre, and hence such verses are called ^' lyric " 
poetry. From serious discussions like those of Solon (§ 468) 
the poets passed to songs of momentary moods, longings, 
dreams, hopes, and fiery storms of passion. Each in his way 
found a wondrous world within hi?nself, which he thus pic- 
tured in short songs. Probably the greatest of these poets 
was Pindar of Thebes. Proud of his noble birth, the friend 
and intimate of tyrants and nobles, but also their fearless ad- 
monisher, Pindar gloried both in the pleasures and the respon- 
sibilities of wealth and rank. He sang in praise of pomp and 
splendor with a vividness which makes us see the chariots 
flashing down the course and hear the shouting of the multitude 
as the proud victor receives the laurel wreath of triumph. In 
exalted speech, often difficult to understand, Pindar delighted 
thus to glorify the life and rule of the nobles. At the same 
time his immortal word pictures of their life and their triumphs 
are always suffused with the beauty of unquestioning belief in 
the gods, especially Apollo, for whom Pindar seemed to speak 
almost as a prophet. He was the last great spokesman of a 
dying order of society, the rule of the nobles, which was to 
give way to the rule of the people. Another great lyric singer 
of the age was the poetess Sappho, the earliest woman to gain 
undying fame in literature. Indeed, she was perhaps the 
greatest poetess the world has ever seen. 

A favorite form of song was the chorus, with which the coun- 483. Festival 
try folk loved to celebrate their rustic feasts (headpiece, p. 221). come drama 
The poet Stesichorus, who lived in Sicily, began to write 
choruses which told the stories of the gods as they were found 
in the old myths. The singers as they marched in rustic pro- 
cession wore goatskins, and their faces were concealed by masks. 



3IO Ancient Times 

Some of the songs were sung responsively by the chorus and 
their leader. For the diversion of the listening peasants the 
leader would illustrate with gestures the story told in the song. 
He thus became to some extent an actor, the forerunner of 
the actors on our own stage. After Pisistratus introduced 
the spring feast of Dionysus at Athens (§ /174), this form of 
presentation made rapid progress. A second leader was intro- 
duced, and dialogue between the two was then possible, though 
the chorus continued to recite most of the narrative. Thus 
arose a form of musical play or drama, the action or narrative 
of which was carried on by the chorus and two actors. The 
Greeks called such a play a tragedy, which means " goat's 
play," probably because of the rustic disguise as goats which 
the chorus had always worn. 

484. Origin The grassy circle where the chorus danced and sang was 

usually on a slope in the hills, from which the spectators had 
a fine view of the country and the sea beyond. At Athens the 
people sat on the slope of the Acropolis, and as they watched the 
play they could look far across the sea to the heights of Argos. 
Here, under the southern brow of the Acropolis, where Pisistra- 
tus laid out the sacred precinct of Dionysus (see plan, p. 352), the 
theater began to take form and furnished the arrangements which 
have finally been inherited by us in our theaters (see Fig. 189). 

485. Archi- The tyrants were so devoted to building that architecture 

made very important advances. The Greek cities, including the 

buildings of the government, were still simply groups of sun- i 

dried-brick buildings. Great stone buildings such as we have ' 

seen on the Nile had been unknown in Europe since the time 

of the ^geans (Fig. 145), but now the rough Greek temples 

of sun-dried brick were rebuilt in limestone by the tyrants. 

Indeed, the front of the temple of Apollo at Delphi was even 

built of marble. At no other time before or since were so many j 

temples erected as in the Greek world in the Age of the 

Tyrants. In Sicily and southern Italy a number of the noble 

temples of this age still stand to display to us the beauty and 



tecture 



The Industrial Revolution 



311 



simplicity of Greek architecture when it was still at an unde- 
veloped stage (Fig. 219). Instead of the wooden posts of 

the Age of the Nobles 

(§ 449), these temples 
were surrounded by lines 
of plain sto7ie columns 
(colonnades) in a style 
which we call Doric 
(Fig. 167). Although the 
architects of the tyrants 
borrowed the idea and 
the form of these colon- 
nades from Egypt, they 
improved them until they 
made them the most 
beautiful columns ever 
designed by early archi- 
tects. Like those on the 
Nile, these Greek tem- 
ples were painted in 
bright colors (see p. 340). 
Such temples were 
adorned, in the triangu- 
lar gable end, with sculp- 
tured relief figures of 
the gods, grouped in 
scenes representing in- 
cidents in the myths. 
Although at first very 
much influenced by ori- 
ental reliefs, the sculptor 
soon produced works of 
real beauty and inde- 
pendence (Fig. 169). In 
meeting the demand for 




Fig. 

UMN 



A 
167. 
AND 



An Olp Egyptian Col- 
THE Doric Column de- 
rived FROM it 



The earliest form of column used by the 
Greeks was a fluted shaft of stone {B) 
closely resembling the simplest form {A) 
which we found in Egypt, dating nearly 
2000 B.C. (Fig. 57). Not only the whole 
idea of a rhythmic row of piers but also 
the form of each shaft was thus taken 
by the Greeks from Egypt. The Greeks 
gave this form completeness and in- 
creased beauty by adding a capital and 
shaping it with great refinement of line 
and contour. We should recall that col- 
onnades were not in use in the Asiatic 
Orient until the Persians introduced them 
there (Fig. 1 16). See also diagram, p. 340 



486. Sculp- 
ture 



r- 




i 


i" 


W^ 


1 ■ 

^ .-. .,,.. -. 





A U 

Fig. 1 68. Early Greek Statue and Egyptian 
Statue by which it was influenced 



Portrait 



The Egyptian portrait (B) is over two thousand years older than the 
Greek figure {A). The noble (B), one of those whose estate we visited 
on the Nile (§ 8o), stands in the customary posture of such figures in 
Egyptian art, with the arms hanging down and the left foot thrust 
forward. The Greek figure (A) stands in the same posture, with the 
left foot thrust forward. Both look straight ahead, as was customary 
in undeveloped art. The Greek figure shows clearly the influence 
of Egyptian sculpture :. 
312 



The Industrial Revolution 3 1 3 

statues of the victors at the games, the Greek sculptors were 
also much influenced by the Egyptian figures they had seen. 
Their earliest figures in stone were therefore still stiff and un- 
graceful (Fig. 168). Moved by patriotic impulses, however, 




Fig. 169. Monument of the Tyrant Slayers of Athens, 
Harmodius and Aristogiton, from Two Points of View 

On the slopes of the Areopagus (see plan, p. 352, and Fig. 182) over- 
looking the market place, the Athenians set up this group, depicting 
at the moment of attack the two heroic youths who lost their lives in an 
attempt to slay the two sons of Pisistratus and to free Athens from 
the two tyrants (514 B.C.) (§475). The group was carried off by the 
Persians after the battle of Salamis ; the Athenians had another made 
to replace the first one. It was afterward recovered in Persia by 
Alexander or his successors and restored to its old place where both 
groups stood side by side. Our illustration is an ancient copy in 
marble, probably reproducing the later of the two groups 

the Athenian sculptors went still farther and attempted a kind 
of work which never had arisen in the Orient. They wrought 
a noble memorial of the two youths who endeavored to free 
Athens from the sons of Pisistratus. It was in the form of 
a group depicting the two at the moment of their attack on 
the tyrants, and although it still displayed some of the old 
stiffness, it also sliowed remarkable progress toward free and 



314 



Ancient Times 



vigorous action of the human body (Fig. 169). These figures! 
were cast in bronze. 
487. Painting Similar progress was made by the painters of the age. Justi 
as the poets had begun to call upon their own imagination for 
subject matter, so the vase-painters now began to depict not 
only scenes from the myths of the gods and heroes, but also 
pictures from the everyday life of the times (see the school, 




Fig. 170. Greek Vase-Painting, showing the Home Life 
OF Women 

A maidservant at the right presents to her mistress an Egyptianr 
alabaster perfume bottle (see the same shape in glass, Fig. 49). The 
mistress sits arranging her hair before a hand mirror. Behind hei 
approaches another woman. At the left a lady is working at an em- 
broidery frame, while a visitor in street costume watches her work. 
Behind stands a lady with a basket. Notice the grace and beauty of ther 
figures, which at this time were in red (the natural color of the terra 
cotta), showing through a shining black pigment laid on by the artis1» 



Fig. 181). At the same time they improved their method greatly 
(cf. Fig. 170). They made drawings of the human figure that 
were more natural and true than early artists had ever before? 
been able to do. Their skill in depicting limbs shortened by™ 
being seen from one end was surprising. These problems, called 
foreshortening and perspective, were first solved by the Greek 
painters. The vases of this age are a wonderful treasury of 
beautiful scenes from Greek life (Fig. 170), reminding us of 
our glimpses into the life of Egypt two thousand five hundred 
years earlier, in the tomb-chapel scenes of the Nile. 



The Industrial Revolution 315 

Literature and painting show us that the Greeks of this age 488. Grow- 
ivere intensely interested in the life of their own time. In the r"|hrand ° 
first place, they were thinking more deeply than ever before J^h'J^f'j^'t P^"' 
about conduct, and they were better able to distinguish between hereafter 
right and wrong. Men could no longer believe that the gods 
ied the evil lives pictured in the Homeric songs. Stesichorus 
'§ 483) had so high an idea of womanly fidelity that he could 
lot accept the tale of. the beautiful Helen's faithlessness, and 
m his festival songs he told the ancient story in another way. 
Men now felt that even Zeus and his Olympian divinities must 
do the right. Mortals too must do the same, for men had now 
:ome to believe that in the world of the dead there was punish- 
tuent for the evildoer. Hades became a place of torment for 
the wicked, guarded by Cerberus, a monstrous dog, one of those 
sentinel animals of the Orient of which the Sphinx of Gizeh 
^Fig. 54), also guarding the dead, is the oldest example. 

Likewise it was believed that there must be a place of 489. Bless- 
blessedness for the good in the next world. Accordingly, in hereafter; 
the temple at Eleusis scenes from the mysterious earth life ''^^^^^^^'' 
of Demeter and Dionysus, to whom men owed the fruits of 
the earth, were presented by the priests in dramatic form 
before the initiated, and he who viewed them mysteriously 
received immortal life and might be admitted into the Islands 
of the Blessed, where once none but the ancient heroes could 
be received. Even the poorest slave was permitted to enter 
this fellowship and be initiated into the " mysteries," as they 
were called. 

More than ever, also, men now turned to the gods for a 490- Oracles 
knowledge of the future in this world. Everywhere it was 
believed that the oracle voice of Apollo revealed the outcome 
of every untried venture, and his shrine at Delphi (Figs. 171 
and 172) became a national religious center, to which the whole 
Greek world resorted. 

Some thoughtful men, on the other hand, were rejecting 
the beliefs of older times, especially regarding the world and 



3i6 



Ancient Times 



491. Thales 
and his pre- 
diction of 
an eclipse 

(585 B.C.) 



its control by the gods. The Ionian cities, long the com- 
mercial leaders of the ^gean, now likewise led the way in 

thinking of these 
new problems. In 
constant contact 
with Egypt and the 
Phoenician cities, 
they gained the 
beginnings of math- 
ematics and as- 
tronomy as known 
in the Orient, and 
one of the Ionian 
thinkers had in- 
deed set up an 
Egyptian shadow 
clock (Fig. 74). 
At Miletus, the 
leader of these Io- 
nian cities, there 
was an able states- 
man named Thales, 
who had traveled 
widely, and re- 
ceived from Baby- 
lonia a list of ob- 
servations of the 
heavenly bodies. 
From such lists the 
Babylonians had al- 
ready learned that 
eclipses of the sun 
occurred at periodic intervals (§ 239). With these lists in his 
hands Thales could calculate when the next eclipse would 
occur. He therefore told the people of Miletus that they might 




Fig, 



171. View over the Valley and 
Ruins of Delphi to the Sea 



This splendid gorge in the slopes of Mount Par- 
nassus on the north side of the Corinthian Gulf 
(see map, p. 352) was very early sacred to Apollo, 
who was said to have slain the dragon Pytho 
which lived here. The white line of road in the 
foreground is the highway descending to the 
distant arm of the Corinthian Gulf. On the left 
of this road the cliff descends sheer 1000 feet, 
and above the road (on its right) on the steep 
slope are the ruins of the sacred buildings of 
ancient Delphi, excavated by the French in re- 
cent years. We can see the zigzag road lead- 
ing up the hill among the ruins just at the right 
of the main road (cf. also Fig. 172) 






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317 



3i8 



Ancient Times 



492. Natural 
law versus the 
gods ; rise of 
science and 
philosophy 
among the 
lonians 



493. Ionian 
geography 
and history 



expect an eclipse of the sun before the end of a certain year. 
When the promised eclipse (585 B.C.) actually occurred as he 
had predicted, the fame of Thales spread far and wide. 

The prediction of an eclipse, a feat already accomplished by 
the Babylonians (§ 239), was not so important as the conse- 
quences which followed in the mind of Thales. Hitherto men 
had believed that eclipses and all the other strange things that 
happened in the skies were caused by the momentary angry 
whim of some god. Now, however, Thales boldly proclaimed 
that the movements of the heavenly bodies were in accordance 
with fixed laws. The gods were thus banished from control 
of the sky-world where the eagle of Zeus had once ruled 
(§ 413). So also when a Greek traveler like Thales visited the 
vast buildings of the Orient, like the pyramids of Gizeh, then 
over two thousand years old, he at once saw that the gods had 
not been wandering on earth a few generations before his own 
time. This fact seemed to banish the gods from the past, and 
from the beginning of the world likewise. 

Hence another citizen of Miletus, perhaps a pupil of Thales, 
explained the origin of animals by assuming a development of 
higher forms from the lower ones, in a manner which reminds 
us of the modern theory of evolution. He studied the forms 
of the seas and the countries, and he made a map of the world. 
It is the earliest world map known to us, although maps of a 
limited region were already in use in Egypt and Babylonia. 
A little later another geographer of Miletus, named Hecataeus, 
traveled widely, including a journey up the Nile, and he wrote 
a geography of the world. In this book, as in the map just 
mentioned, the Mediterranean Sea was the center, and the 
lands about it for a short distance back from its shores were 
all those which were known to the author (see his map, p. 319). 
Hecataeus also put together a history made up of the mythical 
stories of early Greece and the tales of the past he had heard 
in the Orient. After the Unknown Historian of the Hebrews 
{% 302), he was the first historical writer of the early world. 



The hi dus trial Revolution 



319 



Another Ionian thinker, who migrated to southern Italy, was 494. Ionian 
Pythagoras. He investigated mathematics and natural science, ^nd natural 
K^e or his pupils discovered that the square of the hypotenuse science 
equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides of a right- 
angled triangle. They also found out that the length of a musi- 
cal string is in exact mathematical relation to the height of 
its tone. They 



likewise discov- ,,^x i1^^sL4^ e g 

ered that the 
earth is a sphere 
which possesses 
its own motion. 
Another of these 
lonians, in his 
account of the 
origin of the 
earth, called at- 
tention to the 
presence of pet- 
rified sea plants 
and fish in the 
rocks, to prove 
that the sea had 
at one time cov- 
ered the land. 

Thus these Ionian thinkers, having gradually abandoned the 495. The 
old myths, took the natural world out of the hands of the gods, taken by 
They therefore became the forerunners of natural scientists and J^f^ke^f " 
philosophers, for they strove to discern what were the natural 
laws which in the beginning had brought the world into exist- 
ence, and still continued to control it. At this point in their 
thinking they entered upon a new world of thought, which we 
call science and philosophy — a world which had never dawned 
'upon the greatest minds of the early East. This step, taken 
by Thales and the great men of the Ionian cities, remains and 




Map of the World by Hecat^us (517 b.c.) 



320 Ancient Times 

will forever remain the greatest achievement of the human m 
tellect — an achievement to call forth the reverence and admi- 
ration of all time. 
496. Sum- The Age of the Tyrants was therefore one of the great 

of the Age of cpochs of the world's history. Under the stimulus of the keen 
the Tyrants struggle for leadership in business, in government, and in 
society, the minds of the ablest men of the time were wonder- 
fully quickened, till they threw off the bondage of habit and 
entered an entirely new world of science and philosophy. The 
inner power of this vigorous new Greek life flowed out in 
statesmanship, in literature and religion, in sculpture and 
painting, in architecture and building. As a group the leaders 
of this age, many of them tyrants, made an impression which 
never entirely disappeared, and they were called " the Seven 
Wise Men." They were the earliest statesmen and thinkers 
of Greece. The people loved to quote their sayings, such as 
" Know thyself," a proverb which was carved over the door of 
the Apollo temple at Delphi (Fig. 172); or Solon's wise maxim, 
" Overdo nothing." After the overthrow of the sons of Pisis- 
tratus, however, the tyrants were disappearing, and although a 
tyrant here and there survived, especially in Asia Minor and 
Sicily, Greece at this time (about 500 B.C.) passed out of the 
Age of the Tyrants. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 46. How did the new colonies of the Greeks influence 
manufacturing at home "i What can you tell of commerce and manu- 
factures? What step toward freedom from foreign influences did 
Greek manufactures take ? What evidence have we of the extent of 
Athenian commerce? Discuss the effect upon shipbuilding. What 
new business convenience came in from the East? How did coinage 
arise? What leading coins did Athens possess? How did coinage 
affect business and the accumulation of wealth ? From our point of 
view did the Greeks have any large cities or farms ? 

Section 47. What was now happening to the Greek farmers in 
the matter of wealth? in the matter of military and political power? 



The Industrial Revolution 321 

Were the nobles all united? What attitude toward the common 
people did a leading noble often take? What was the result? How 
did the Greeks feel toward a tyrant? W^hen may we date the period 
of the tyrants ? 

In what form had Greek laws thus far existed? What did the 
people now demand? What code of laws was made at Athens? 
Who now aroused Athens to meet her foreign difficulties? What 
did Solon accomplish after he was elected archon? What can you 
say of his character ? Did his work save Athens from the rule of a 
tyrant ? 

What did Pisistratus accomplish ? When did he die ? What hap- 
pened to his sons? How did Clisthenes aid the people? What was 
ostracism? What was meantime happening in Sparta? How did 
Sparta feel toward Athens ? 

Section 48. Describe the social position of the nobles in the 
Age of the Tyrants. What was their attitude toward the athletic 
games ? What can you say of education in this age ? Discuss instru- 
mental music ; vocal music. What was lyric poetry ? Who was the 
leading lyric poet, and what can you say of his poetry ? Of what class 
was he the spokesman? Who was the greatest poetess? How did 
festal choruses lead to drama? What was the origin of the theater? 

Had the Greeks any fine buildings in this age? What was the 
building material? Had they never seen any stone buildings? In 
what style of architecture were the temples erected ? Where did the 
form of the Doric column arise? Did the Greeks improve these 
columns ? Did they color them ? What other adornment of his tem- 
ples did the Greek architect employ? Under what influences did 
Greek sculpture arise? What progress does the monument of the 
tyrant-slayers show? 

Discuss Greek vase-painting in this age. What subjects did the 
vase-painters select ? Compare the human figures in Fig. 1 70 and 
those in Fig. 155 and express your opinion of the progress made 
in two and a half centuries. How was the method of vase-painting 
improved? What progress was made in ideas of conduct? Discuss 
the ideas of the hereafter ; oracles. What did Thales do ? Was he 
the first to make such a calculation ? What conclusions did he make 
about the gods and their control of the world ? Tell about the first 
maps of the world. What new world had the Ionian thinkers entered 
upon ? What can you say of the Age of the Tyrants as a whole ? 



/W^ 




1 "li^ 






y 



4 
•i 

Ir 

I 

4 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE REPULSE OF PERSIA 



Section 49. The Coming of the Persians 



497. Rise 
of Lydia in 
Asia Minor 



498. Fall of 
Lydia and 
advance of 
Persia to 
the yEgean 



The leadership gained by the Ionian cities in the Age of the 
Tyrants was now seriously checked by their neighbors in Asia 
Minor. Here still lived the descendants of the Hittites (§ 351), 
mingled with later invaders (§ 376). The kings of Lydia, their 
leading kingdom, where we have already met Croesus (§ 260), 
made their capital, Sardis, the strongest city of Asia Minor 
(Fig. 173). From them the practice of coinage had passed to 
the Greeks (§ 458). The Lydians had finally conquered all the 
Greek cities along the ^gean coast of Asia Minor except Miletus, 
which still resisted capture. 

The Lydians had been strong enough to halt the Medes, but 
we remember that when Cyrus the Persian invaded Asia Minor, 
he defeated Croesus and captured Sardis (§ 260). In the midst 

Note. The above headpiece represents a scene sculptured in relief on a door- 
way in the palace of Xerxes at Persepolis (Fig. ii6). It shows us Xerxes as he 
was accustomed to appear when enthroned before his nobles, with his attendants 
and fan-bearers. At Salamis he took his station on the heights of .Egaleos over- 
looking the bay (§ 513), and as he sat there viewing the battle below him, he must 
have been enthroned as we see him here. 

322 



The Repulse of Persia 



323 



of the most remarkable progress in civilization (§§ 491-496), 
the Ionian cities thus suddenly lost their liberty and became the 
subjects of Persia, a despotic oriental power. Moreover, the sud- 
den advance of Persia to the ^gean made this power at one 
stroke a close neighbor of the Greek world now arising there. 




^-%-=^- 








Fig. 173. Sardis, the City of Crcesus, in Course of 
Excavation 

The natural drainage from the mountain slope in the background has 
covered the ruins of the city with earth. The bank showing the edge 
of this earth and the hmit of the excavations can be seen behind the 
columns of the temple rising in the middle. These excavations, which 
have produced very important results, are an American enterprise 
under the direction of Professor Howard Crosby Butler, to whose kind- 
ness the author owes this photograph 

As we have already learned, the Persians represented a high 499. The 
civilization and an enlightened rule ; but, on the other hand, met and^th^ 
the Orient lacked free citizenship, and in place of science the Jon'ianf ^^^ 
Orientals felt complete subjection of the mind to religious 
tradition. Persian supremacy in Greece would therefore have 



324 



Ancient Times 



500. First 
Persian in- 
vasion of 
Europe 



501. Second 
Persian in- 



502. Con- 
sternation 
in Athens 
and Greece 



checked the free development of Greek genius along its own 
exalted lines. There seemed little prospect that the tiny Greek 
states, even if they united, could successfully resist the vast 
oriental empire, controlling as it did all the countries of the 
ancient East, virhich we have been studying. Nevertheless the 
Ionian cities revolted against their Persian lords. 

During the struggle with Persia which followed this revolt, 
the Athenians sent twenty ships to aid their Ionian kindred. 
This act brought a Persian army of revenge, under Darius, 
into Europe. The long march across the Hellespont and 
through Thrace cost the invaders many men, and the fleet 
which accompanied the Persian advance was wrecked in trying 
to round the high promontory of Mount Athos (492 B.C.). 
This advance into Greece was therefore abandoned for a plan 
of invasion by water across the ^gean. 

In the early summer of 490 B.C. a considerable fleet of 
transports and warships bearing the Persian host put out from 
the Island of Samos, sailed straight across the ^gean, and 
entered the straits between Euboea and Attica (see map I, 
p. 344, and Fig. 174). The Persians began by burning the 
little city of Eretria, which had also sent ships to aid the 
lonians. They then landed on the shores of Attica, in the Bay 
of Marathon (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 174), intending to 
march on Athens, the greater offender. They were guided by 
the aged. Hippias, son of Pisistratus, once tyrant of Athens, 
who accompanied them with high hopes of regaining control 
of his native city. 

All was excitement and confusion among the Greek states. 
The defeat of the revolting Ionian cities, and especially the 
Persian sack of Miletus, had made a deep impression through- 
out Greece. An Athenian dramatist had depicted in a play the 
plunder of the unhappy- city and so incensed the Athenians that 
they passed weeping from the theater to prosecute and fine the 
author. Now this Persian foe who had crushed the Ionian 
cities was camping behind the hills only a few miles northeast 



The Repulse of Persia 



325 



of Athens. After dispatching messengers in desperate haste to 
seek aid in Sparta, the Athenian citizens turned to contem- 
plate the seemingly hopeless situation of their beloved city. 




Fig. 1 74. The Plain of Marathon 

This view is taken from the hills at the south end of the plain, and we 
look northeastward across a corner of the Bay of Marathon to the 
mountains in the background, which are on the large island of Euboea 
(see map, p. 352). The Persian camp was on the plain at the very shore 
line, where their ships were moored or drawn up. The Greeks held a 
position in the hills overlooking the plain (just out of range on the left) 
and commanding the road to Athens, which is 25 miles distant behind 
us. When the Persians began to move along the shore road toward 
the right, the Greeks crossed the plain and attacked. The memorial 
mound (Fig. 175) is too far away to be visible from this point 



Thinking to find the Athenians unprepared, Darius had not 503. The 
sent a large army. The Persian forces probably numbered oree?^*^ 
no more than twenty thousand men, but at the utmost the leadership 
Athenians could not put more than half this number into the 
field. Fortunately for them there was among their generals a 
skilled and experienced commander named Miltiades, a man 



326 



Ancient Times 



504. The 
Greek po- 
sition 



S05. The 
battle of 
I\[arathon 
(490 B.C.) 



of resolution and firmness, who, moreover, had lived on the 
Hellespont and was familiar with Persian methods of fighting. 
To his judgment the commander-in-chief, Callimachus, yielded 
at all points. As the citizen-soldiers of Attica flocked to the 
city at the call to arms, Miltiades was able to induce the 
leaders not to await the assault of the Persians at Athens, but 
to march across the peninsula (see map, p. 352) and block the 
Persian advance among the hills overlooking the eastern coast 
and commanding the road to the city. This bold and resolute 
move roused courage and enthusiasm in the downcast ranks 
of the Greeks. 

Nevertheless, when they issued between the hills and looked 
down upon the Persian host encamped upon the Plain of 
Marathon (Fig. 174), flanked by a fleet of hundreds of vessels, 
misgiving and despair chilled the hearts of the little Attic army 
made up as it was of citizen militia without experience in 
war, and pitted against a Persian army of professional sol- 
diers of many battles. But Miltiades held the leaders firmly 
in hand, and the arrival of a thousand Greeks from Plataea. 
revived the courage of the Athenians. The Greek position 
overlooked the main road to Athens, and the Persians could 
not advance without leaving their line of march exposed on 
one side to the Athenian attack. 

Unable to lure the Greeks from their advantageous position 
after several days' waiting, the Persians at length attempted to 
march along the road to Athens, at the same time endeavoring 
to cover their exposed line of march with a sufficient force 
thrown out in battle array. Miltiades was familiar with the 
Persian custom of massing troops in the center. He there- 
fore massed his own troops on both wings, leaving his center 
weak. It was a battle between bow and spear. The Athenians 
undauntedly faced the storm of Persian arrows (§ 259 and 
Fig. 113), and then both wings pushed boldly forward to the 
line of shields behind which the Persian archers were kneeling. 
In the meantime the Persian center, finding the Greek center 



The Repulse of Persia 



327 



weak, had pushed it back, while the two Greek wings closed in 
on either side and thrust back the Persian wings in confusion. 
The Asiatic army crumbled into a broken multitude between 
the two advancing lines of Greeks. The Persian bow was use- 
less, and the Greek spear everywhere spread death and terror. 
As the Persians fled to their ships they left over six thousand 




"•^'z-.^:,' •n.-S*^" 



■ MI'S*, 













^^' ^ 



Fig. 175. Mound raised as a Monument to the Fallen 

Greeks on the Plain at Marathon 
The mound is nearly 50 feet high. Excavations undertaken in 1890 dis- 
closed beneath it the bodies of the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian 
citizens who fell in the battle. Some of their weapons and the funeral 
vases buried with them were also recovered 

dead upon the field, while the Athenians lost less than two hun- 
dred men (Fig. 175). When the Persian commander, unwilling 
to acknowledge defeat, sailed around the Attic peninsula and 
appeared with his fleet before the port of Athens, he found it 
unwise to attempt a landing, for the victorious Athenian army 
was already encamped beside the city. The Persians therefore 
retired, and we can imagine with what feelings the Athenian 
citizens watched the Persian ships as they disappeared. 



328 



Ancient Times 



506. Rise of 
Themistocles 



507. Xerxes 

inherits the 
Persian quar- 
rel with the 
Greeks 



Section 50. The Greek Repulse of Persians 

AND PhCENICIANS 

Among the men who stood in the Athenian ranks at Mara- 
thon was Themistocles, the ablest statesman in Greece, a man 
who had already occupied the office of archon, the head of the 
Athenian state. He was convinced of the necessity of building 
up a strong navy — a course already encouraged by Pisistratus 
(§ 474). As archon, Themistocles had therefore striven to show 
the Athenians that the only way in which Athens could hope to 
meet the assault of Persia was by making herself undisputed 
mistress of the sea. He had failed in his effort. But now the 
Athenians had seen the Persians cross the ^gean with their 
fleet and land at Marathon. It was evident that a powerful 
Athenian navy might have stopped them. They began to listen 
to the counsels of Themistocles to make Athens the great sea 
power of the Mediterranean. 

Darius the Great, whose remarkable reign we have studied 
(§§ 267-273), died without having avenged the defeat of his 
army at Marathon. His son and successor Xerxes therefore 
took up the unfinished task. Xerxes planned a far-reaching 
assault on Greek civilization all along the line from Greece to 
Sicily. This he could do through his control of the Phoenician 
cities. The naval policy of his father Darius (§ 270) had given 
the Persians a huge Phoenician war fleet. In so far as the com- 
ing attack on Greece was by sea it was chiefly a Semitic assault. 
At the same time Xerxes induced Phoenician Carthage to attack 
the Greeks in Sicily. Thus the two wings of the great Semitic 
line represented by the Phoenicians in east and west (Carthage) 
were to attack the Indo-European line (Fig. 112) represented in 
east and west by the Greeks. Xerxes was induced by his general 
Mardonius to adopt the Hellespont route (map I, p. 344). 

Meantime the Greeks were making ready to meet the coming 
Persian assault. They soon saw that Xerxes' commanders were 
cutting a canal behind the promontory of Athos, to secure a 



The Repulse of Persia 329 

short cut and thus to avoid all risk of such a wreck as had over- 508. The- 
taken their former fleet in rounding this dangerous point. When [Uduces^the 
the news of this operation reached Athens, Themistocles was ^*^i^"'^J^ t° 
able to induce the Athenian Assembly to build a great fleet of 
probably a hundred and eighty triremes. The Greeks were 
then able for the first time to meet the Persian advance by 
both sea and land (see map I, p. 344). 

Themistocles' masterly plan of campaign corresponded ex- 509. Third 
actly to the plan of the Persian advance. The Asiatics were vaYion— The- 
coming in combined land and sea array, with army and fleet "jistocies' 
moving together down the east coast of the Greek mainland, campaign 
It was as if the Persian forces had two wings, a sea wing and 
a land wing, moving side by side. The design of Themistocles 
was to meet the Persian sea wing first with full force and fight 
a decisive naval battle as soon as possible. If victorious, the 
Greek fleet commanding the ^gean would then be able to sail 
up the eastern coast of Greece and threaten the communica- 
tions and supplies of the Persian army. There must be no at- 
tempt of the small Greek army to meet the vast land forces of 
the Persians, beyond delaying them as long as possible at the 
narrow northern passes, which could be defended with a few 
men. An attempt to unite all the Greek states was not success- 
ful, but Sparta and Athens combined their forces to meet the 
common danger. Themistocles was able to induce the Spartans 
to accept his plan only on condition that Sparta be given com- 
mand of the allied Greek fleets. 

In the summer of 480 B.C. the Asiatic army was approaching 510. Persians 
the pass of Thermopylae (Fig. 176), just opposite the western- 
most point of the Island of Euboea (see map, p. 352). Their 
fleet moved with them. The Asiatic host must have numbered 
over two hundred thousand men, with probably as many more 
camp followers, while the enormous fleet contained presumably 
about a thousand vessels, of which perhaps two thirds were 
warships. Of these ships, the Persians lost a hundred or two 
in a storm, leaving probably about five hundred warships 



330 



Ancient Times 



available for action. The Spartan king Leonidas led some five 
thousand men to check the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae, 
while the Greek fleet of less than three hundred triremes was 
endeavoring to hold together and strike the Persian navy at 




i*V, 



Fig. 176. The Pass of Thermopylae 

In the time of the Persian invasion the mountains to the left dropped 
steeply to the sea, with barely room between for a narrow road. Since 
then the rains of twenty-four hundred years have washed down the 
mountainside, and it is no longer as steep as formerly, while the neigh- 
boring river has filled in the shore and pushed back the sea several 
miles. Otherwise we would see it here on the right. The Persians, 
coming from beyond the mountains toward our point of view, could not 
spread out in battle array, being hemmed in by the sea on one side and 
the cliff on the other. It was only when a traitorous Greek led a Persian 
force by night over the mountain on the left, and they appeared behind 
the Greeks in the pass, that Leonidas and his Spartans were crushed by 
the simultaneous attack in front and rear (§§ 510-51 1) 

Artemisium, on the northern coast of Eubcea. Thus the land 
and sea forces of both contestants were face to face. 

After several days' delay the Persians advanced to attack on 
both land and sea. The Greek fleet made a skillful and credit- 
able defense against superior numbers, and all day the dauntless 



The Repulse of Persia 331 

Leonidas held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian 511. The 
host. Meantime the Persians were executing two flank move- Thermopyis 
ments by land and by sea — one over the mountains to strike and Arte- 

•' •' misium 

Leonidas in the rear, and the other with two hundred ships 
around Euboea to take the Greek fleet likewise from behind. 
A storm destroyed the flanking Persian ships, and a second 
combat between the two main fleets was indecisive. The flank 
movement by sea therefore failed ; but the flanking of the pass 
was successful. Taken in front and rear, the heroic Leonidas 
died fighting at the head of his small force, which the Persian 
host completely annihilated. The death of Leonidas stirred all 
Greece. With the defeat of the Greek land forces and the ad- 
vance of the Persian army, the Greek fleet, seriously damaged, 
was obliged to withdraw to the south. It took up its position 
in the Bay of Salamis (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 177), while 
the main army of the Spartans and their allies was drawn up on 
the Isthmus of Corinth (Fig. 163), the only point at which the 
Greek land forces could hope to make another defensive stand. 

As the Persian army moved southward from Thermopylae, 512. Persian 
the indomitable Themistocles gathered together the Athenian ^^tttc^lnf' 
population and carried them in transports to the little islands burning of 
of Salamis and yFlgina and to the shores of Argolis (see map, 
p. 352, and PL III, p. 276). Meantime the Greek fleet had 
been repaired, and with reinforcements numbered over three 
hundred battleships. Nevertheless it shook the courage of many 
at Salamis as they looked northward, where the far-stretching 
Persian host darkened the coast road, while in the south they 
could see the Asiatic fleet drawn up off the old port of Athens 
at Phalerum (see map, p. 352). High over the Attic hills the 
flames of the burning Acropolis showed red against the sullen- 
masses of smoke that obscured the eastern horizon and told 
them that the homes of the Athenians lay in ashes. With 
masterly skill Themistocles held together the irresolute Greek 
leaders, while he induced Xerxes to attack by the false message 
that the Greek fleet was about to slip out of the bay. 



332 



Ancient Times 



513. Battle 
of Salamis 
(480 B.C.) 



On the heights overlooking the Bay of Salamis the Persian 
king, seated on his throne (headpiece, p. 322) in the midst of 
his brilliant oriental court, took up his station to watch the battle. 



7S^ 




Fig. 177. PiR^us, the Port of Athens, and the Strait and 
Island of Salamis 

The view shows the very modern houses and buildings of this flourish- 
ing harbor town of Athens (see map, p. 352). The mountains in the 
background are the heights of the island of Salamis, which extends also 
far over to the right (north), opposite Eleusis (see map, p. 352). The 
four steamers at the right are lying at the place where the hottest 
fighting in the great naval battle here (§ 513) took place. The Persian 
fleet advanced from the left (south) and could not spread out in a 
long front to enfold the Greek fleet because of the little island just 
beyond the four steamers, which was called Psyttaleia. The Greek 
fleet lying behind Psyttaleia and a long point of Salamis came into 
action from the right (north), around Psyttaleia, and met the front of 
the Persian fleet about where the four steamers lie. A body of Persian 
troops stationed by Xerxes on Psyttaleia were all slain by the Greeks 

The Greek position between the jutting headlands of Salamis 
and the Attic mainland (see map, p. 352, and Fig. 177) was 
too cramped for the maneuvers of a large fleet. Crowded and 
hampered by the narrow sea room, the huge Asiatic fleet soon 
fell into confusion before the Greek attack. There was no room 



The Repulse of Persia 333 

for retreat. The combat lasted the entire day, and when dark- 
ness settled on the Bay of Salamis the Persian fleet had been 
almost annihilated. The Athenians were masters of the sea, and 
it was impossible for the army of Xerxes to operate with the 
same freedom as before. By the creation of its powerful fleet 
Athens had saved Greece, and Themistocles had shown himself 
the greatest of Greek statesmen. 

Xerxes was now troubled lest he should be cut off from Asia 514. Retreat 
by the victorious Greek fleet. Indeed, Themistocles made every fn the^East • 
effort to induce Sparta to join with Athens in doing this very ^'^^^ ^^ . 
thing ; but the cautious Spartans could not be prevailed upon the West 
to undertake what seemed to them so dangerous an enterprise. 
Had Themistocles' plan of sending the Greek fleet immediately 
to the Hellespont been carried out, Greece would have been 
saved another year of anxious campaigning against the Persian 
army. With many losses from disease and insufficient supplies, 
Xerxes retreated to the Hellespont and withdrew into Asia, 
leaving his able general Mardonius with an army of perhaps 
fifty thousand men to winter in Thessaly. Meantime the news 
reached Greece that the army of Carthaginians which had 
crossed from Africa to Sicily had been completely defeated by 
the Greeks under the leadership of Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse. 
Thus the assault of the Asiatics upon the Hellenic world was 
beaten back in both east and west in the same year (480 e.g.). 

The brilliant statesmanship of Themistocles, so evident to us 515. Reac- 
of to-day, was not so clear to the Athenians as the winter passed xhemfsTodes 
and they realized that the victory at Salamis had not relieved 
Greece of the presence of a Persian army, and that Mardonius 
would invade Attica with the coming of spring. Themistocles, 
whose proposed naval expedition to the Hellespont would have 
forced the Persian army out of Greece, was removed from 
command by the factions of his ungrateful city. Nevertheless 
the most tempting offers from Mardonius could not induce the 
Athenians to forsake the cause of Greek liberty and join hands 
with Persia. 



334 



Ancient Times 



516. Persians 
again in 

Attica 



517. Battle 
of Plataea ; 
final defeat 
of Persia 
(479 B.C.) 



518. Athe- 
nian fleet vic- 
torious in 
Ionia and 
the North 



As Mardonius, at the end of the winter rains, led his army 
again into Attica, the unhappy Athenians were obliged to flee 
as before, this time chiefly to Salamis. Sparta, always reluctant 
and slow when the crisis demanded quick and vigorous action, 
was finally induced to put her army into the field. When Mar- 
donius in Attica saw the Spartan king Pausanias advancing 
through the Corinthian Isthmus and threatening his rear, he 
withdrew northward, having for the second time laid waste 
Attica far and wide. With the united armies of Sparta, Athens, 
and other allies behind him, Pausanias was able to lead some 
thirty thousand heavy-armed Greeks of the phalanx, as he fol- 
lowed Mardonius into Boeotia. 

In several days of preliminary movements which brought the 
two armies into contact at Platasa, the clever Persian showed 
his superiority, out-maneuvering Pausanias and even gaining 
possession of the southern passes behind the Greeks and cap- 
turing a train of their supply wagons. But when Mardonius led 
his archers forward at double-quick, and the Persians, kneeling 
behind their line of shields, rained deadly volleys of arrows into 
the compact Greek lines, the Hellenes never flinched, although 
their comrades were falling on every hand. With the gaps closed 
up, the massive Greek phalanx pushed through the line of 
Persian shieldsj and, as at Marathon, the spear proved invincible 
against the bow. In a heroic but hopeless effort to rally his 
broken lines, Mardonius himself fell. The Persian cavalry 
covered the rear of the flying Asiatic army and saved it from 
destruction. 

Not only European Greece, but Ionia too, was saved from 
Asiatic despotism ; for the Greek triremes, having meantime 
crossed to the peninsula of Mycale on the north of Miletus, 
drove out or destroyed the remnants of the Persian fleet. The 
Athenians now also captured and occupied Sestus on the Euro- 
pean side of the Hellespont, and thus held the crossing from 
Asia into Europe closed against further Persian invasion. Thus 



The Repulse of Persia 335 

the grandsons of the men who had seen Persia advance to the 
^gean had blocked her further progress in the West and thrust 
her back from Europe. Indeed, no Persian army ever set foot 
in European Greece again. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 49. What was the leading kingdom of Asia Minor be- 
yond the fringe of Greek coast cities ? What had happened to these 
Greek cities in the middle of the sixth century B.C..'' Who was the 
last king of Lydia? Who crushed the Lydian kingdom? W^hen? 
What great oriental power thus advanced to the east side of the 
yEgean.? What do you think of the prospects for Greek resistance? 

What did the Ionian cities of Asia do? What part did Athens 
take in their revolt ? How did the Persians respond ? When ? Who 
was their king? Where did they land in Greece? How far is 
Marathon from Athens? What did the Athenians do? Discuss the 
numbers of the two armies. Did the Athenians wait for the Persians 
at Athens? Who was their leader? What position did the Greeks 
take up, and what advantages were thus gained ? Describe the battle 
of Marathon. 

Section 50. What great Greek statesman had fought at Mara- 
thon? What was his policy for the future defense of Athens? De- 
scribe the plans of Xerxes for the subjection of Greece. What did 
the Athenians do ? Describe Themistocles' plan of campaign. What 
first two battles took place? Describe them. What was the next 
move of the Persian army? Describe the battle of Salamis. 

What did Xerxes do after the battle of Salamis ? What move did 
Themistocles urge? What was the result of the Greek failure to 
accept Themistocles' advice? What victory did the Greeks win in 
Sicily at the same time? What racial conflict do these victories 
represent ? What happened to Themistocles ? What did the Persian 
commander now do ? Who was he ? Where did the final battle take 
place ? Describe it. What final results were obtained by the Greeks 
at sea ? 




CHAPTER XIV 

THE GROWING RIVALRY BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA, 
AND THE RISE OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 

Section 51. The Beginnings of the Rivalry 
BETWEEN Athens and Sparta 



519. Athe- 
nian feeling 
after Salamis 



520. Spartan 
soldier- 
citizens 



As the Athenians returned *to look out over the ashes of 
what was once Athens, amid which rose the smoke-blackened 
heights of the naked Acropolis (Fig. 182), they began to realize 
the greatness of their deliverance and the magnitude of their 
achievement. With the not too ready help of Sparta, they had 
met and crushed the hoary power of Asia. They felt themselves 
masters of the world. The past seemed narrow and limited. 
A new and greater Athens dawned upon their vision. 

Of all this the Spartans, on the other hand, felt very little. 
The Spartan citizens were all soldiers and devoted- themselves 
exclusively to military training. The State maintained public 
meals, where each soldier-citizen ate with a group of about fif- 
teen friends, all men, at the same table every day. Each citizen 
contributed to the support of these meals, and as long as he 
paid this contribution he retained his citizenship. His lands 



Note. The above headpiece represents a potsherd bearing the name of 
Themistocles, which is scratched in the surface of this fragment of a pottery jar 
{ostracon, § 477). It was written there by some citizen of the six thousand who 
desired and secured his ostracism in 472 B.C., or may have served a similar pur- 
pose in the earlier but unsuccessful attempt to ostracize him. 

336 



The Growing Rivalry between Atheits and Sparta 337 

were cultivated for him by slaves, and his only occupation was 
military drill and exercise. The State thus became a military 
machine. 

The number of such Spartan soldier-citizens was quite limited, 521. Spartan 
sometimes being all together only a few thousand. As distin- citizens as 
guished from the large non-voting population of the other towns ^ ruling class 
in the Laconian peninsula, the citizens of Sparta formed a small 
superior class. Thus their rule of the larger surrounding popu- 
lation was the tyranny of a limited military class devoted to 
war and almost without commerce or any interest in the arts 
and industries. So old-fashioned were they, and. so confident 
in their own military power, that they would not surround their 
city with a wall (Fig. 178). Sparta remained a group of strag- 
gling villages, not deserving the name of city and entirely with- 
out fine public buildings or great monuments of any kind. 
Like a large military club or camp, it lived off its own slave- 
worked lands and from the taxes it squeezed out of its subject 
towns without allowing them any vote. In case of war the 
two kings (§ 478) were still the military leaders. 

We can now understand that the stolid Spartans, wearing 522. Con- 
the fetters of a rigid military organization, and gifted with no spartaand 
imagination, looked with misgivings upon the larger world ^"thenT^^^^ 
which was opening to Greek life. Although they desired to 
lead Greece in military power, they shrank from assuming the 
responsibilities of expansion. They represented the past and 
the privileges of the few. Athens represented the future and 
the rights of the many. Thus Greece fell into two camps as it 
were: Sparta (Fig. 178), the bulwark of tradition and limited 
privileges; Athens (Fig. 182), the champion of progress and 
the sovereign people. Thus the sentiment of union born in 
the common struggle for liberty, which might have united the 
Hellenes into one Greek nation, was followed by an unquench- 
able rivalry between the two leading states of Hellas, which 
went on for another century and finally cost the Greeks the 
supremacy of the ancient world. 



338 



Ancient Times 




Fig. 178. The Plain where once Sparta stood 

The olive groves now grow where the Spartans once had their houses. 
The town was not walled until long after the days of Spartan and 
Greek power were over. From the mountains (nearly 8000 feet high) 
behind the plain the visitor can see northeastward far beyond Athens, 
almost to Euboea; 100 miles northward to the mountains on the north 
of the Corinthian Gulf (see map, p. 264); and 125 miles southward to 
the island of Crete. This view shows also how Greece is cut up by 
such mountains 



523. The- Themistocles was now the soul of Athens and her policy of 

the fortlfi- progress and expansion. He determined that Athens should no 

Athens^^ longer follow Sparta. He cleverly hoodwinked the Spartans and, 

in spite of their objections, completed the erection of strong 



The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 339 

walls around a new and larger Athens. At the same time he 
fortified the Piraeus, the Athenian port (see map, p. 352, and 
Fig. 177). When the Spartans, after the repulse of Persia, 
relinquished the command of the combined Greek fleets, the 
powerful Athenian fleet, the creation of Themistocles, was 
master of the ^'Egean. 

Section 52. The Rise of the Athenian Empire 
AND THE Triumph of Democracy 

As the Greek cities of Asia still feared the vengeance of the 524. Estab- 
Persian king, it was easy for the Athenians to form a perma- theDeHan 
nent defensive league with the cities of their Greek kindred in League (478- 

^ 477 B.C.) 

Asia and the ^gean islands. The wealthier of these cities con- 
tributed ships, while others paid a sum of money each year into 
the treasury of the league. Athens was to have command of 
the combined fleet and collect the money. She placed in charge 
of the important task of adjusting all contributions of the league 
and collecting the tribute money a patriotic citizen named Aris- 
tides, whose friends called him '' the Just " because of his 
honesty. He had opposed the naval plans of Themistocles and 
when defeated had been ostracized, but he had later distin- 
guished himself at Salamis and Platasa. In spite of his former 
opposition to Themistocles' plans, he now did important service 
in vigorously aiding to establish the new naval league. The 
treasure he collected was placed for protection in the temple 
of Apollo, on the little island of Delos. Hence the federation 
was known as the Delian League. It was completed within 
three years after Salamis. The transformation of such a league 
into an empire, made up of states subject to Athens, could be 
foreseen as a very easy step (see map II, p. 344). All this was 
therefore viewed with increasing jealousy and distrust by Sparta, 

Under the leadership of Cimon, the son of Miltiades the 525. Rise 
hero of Marathon, the fleet of the league now drove the Per- °^ ^'"'°'^ 
sians entirely out of the region of the Hellespont. Cimon did not 



Frieze (alter- 
nate metopes 
and triglyphs) 





Cornice 
Pediment 



Capital 

Channeled 
shah (with 
section cut 
out to save 
space) 

Base 

Stylobate 




Comparative Diagram of the two Leading Greek Styles of 
Architecture, the Doric (A and B) and the Ionic (C and D) 

The little Doric building (B) is the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi 
(Fig. 172), containing their offerings of gratitude to Apollo. On the low 
base at the left side of the building were placed the trophies from the 
battle of Marathon. Over them on the walls are carved hymns to Apollo 
with musical notes attached, the oldest musical notation surviving. The 
beautiful Ionic building (D) is a restoration of the Temple of Victory on 
the Athenian Acropolis (Fig. 183, B, and headpiece, p. ^jS). Contrast the 
slender columns with the sturdier shafts of the Doric style, and it will be, 
seen that the Ionic order is a more delicate and graceful style. A and C 
show details of both styles. (After Luckenbach) 
340 



The Growing Rivalry betweeji Athens and Sparta 341 

understand the importance of Athenian supremacy in Greece, 
but favored a policy of friendship and alliance with Sparta. 
Hence political conflict arose at Athens over this question. 
Noble and wealthy and old-fashioned folk favored Cimon and 
friendship with Sparta, but progressive and modern Athenians 
followed Themistocles and his anti-Spartan plans. 

Themistocles was unable to win the Assembly ; he was ostra- 526. Fall of 
cized (headpiece, p. 336), and at length, on false charges of (472^^7 Ibx^.) 
treason, he was condemned and obliged to flee for his life. 
The greatest statesman in Athenian history spent the rest of 
his life in the service of the Persian king, and he never again 
saw the city he had saved from the Persians and made mistress 
of an empire. 

In a final battle Cimon crushed the Persian navy in the west 527. Fall 
(468 B.C.), and returned to Athens covered with glory. In ^"^ ^ 
response to a request from the Spartans for help in quelling 
a revolt among their own subjects, Cimon urged the dispatch 
of troops to Sparta. Herein Cimon overestimated the good 
feeling of the Spartans toward Athens ; for in spite of the 
continuance of the revolt, the Spartans after a time curtly 
demanded the withdrawal of the very Athenian troops they 
had asked for. Stung by this rebuff, to which Cimon's friendly 
policy toward Sparta had exposed them, the Athenians voted 
to ostracize Cimon (461 B.C.). 

The overthrow of Cimon was a victory of the people against 528. Over- 
the nobles. They followed it up by attacking the Council of coSncnVf"^ 
Elders, once made up only of nobles (§4^1). It was called theAreopa- 
the Areopagus and used to meet on a hill of that name by ship of the 
the market place (Fig. 182, and plan, p. 352). The people now ?ounciUnd 
passed new laws restricting the power of the Areopagus to the 
trial of murder cases and the settlement of questions of state 
religion, thus completely depriving it of all political power. 
Meantime a more popular council of five hundred members 
had grown up and gained the power to conduct most of the 
government business. This it did by dividing itself into ten 



the citizen- 



342 Ancient Times 

groups of fifty each, each group serving a little over a month 
once a year. At the same time the citizen-juries introduced by 
Solon as a court of appeal (§ 470) were enlarged until they con- 
tained six thousand jurors divided into smaller juries, usually 
of five hundred and one each. Such a jury was really a group 
or court of temporary judges deciding cases brought before 
them. The poorest citizens could not afford to leave their work 
to serve on these juries, and so the people passed laws granting 
pay for jury service. These citizen-courts were at last so power- 
ful that they formed the final lawmaking body in the State, and, 
in cooperation with the Assembly, they made the laws. The 
people were indeed in control. 

529. Office of Furthermore, the right to hold office was greatly extended. 
to^aH except All citizens were permitted to hold the office of archon except 
laboring class members of the laboring class entirely without property. With 

one exception there was no longer any election of the higher 
officers, but they were nov/ all chosen by lot from the whole 
body of eligible citizens. The result was that the men holding 
the once influential positions in the State were now mere chance 
" nobodies " and hence completely without influence. But at 
the same time the public services now rendered by so large 
a number of citizens were a means of education and of very 
profitable experience. Athens was gaining a more intelligent 
body of citizens than any other ancient state. 

530. Politi- There was one kind of officer whom it was impossible to 
Slfpossibie choose by lot, and that was the military commander (strategus). 
to the elective ^j^jg important office remained elective and thus open to men 

strategus ^ 

of ability and influence, into whose hands the direction of 
affairs naturally fell. There were ten of these generals, one for 
each of the ten tribes established by Clisthenes (§ 476), and 
they not only led the army in war but they also managed the 
war department of the government, had large control of the gov- 
ernment treasury and of the Empire, including foreign affairs. 
The leader, or president, of this body of generals was the most 
powerful man in the State, and his office was elective. It thus 



The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 343 




Fig. 179. The Pnyx, the Athenian Place of Assembly 

The speakers' platform with its three steps is immediately in the fore- 
ground. The listening Athenian citizens of the Assembly sat on the 
ground now sloping away to the left, but at that time probably level. 
The ground they occupied was inclosed by a semicircular wall, begin- 
ning at the further end of the straight wall seen here on the right, 
extending then to the left, and returning to the straight wall again 
behind our present point of view (see semicircle on plan, p. 352). 
This was an open-air House of Commons, where, however, the citizen 
did not send a representative but came and voted himself as he was 
influenced from this platform by great Athenian leaders, like Themis- 
tocles, Pericles, or Demosthenes. Note the AcropoHs and the Parthe- 
non, to which we look eastward from the Pnyx (see plan, p. 352). The 
Areopagus is just out of range on the left (see Fig. 182) 



became more and more possible for a noble with military train- 
ing to make himself a strong and influential leader, and if he 
was a man of persuasive eloquence, to lay out a definite series of 
plans for the nation, and by his oratory to induce the Assembly 
of the Athenian citizens on the Pnyx (Fig. 179) to accept them. 



344 



Ancient Times 



531. The 

leadership 
of Pericles 



After the fall of Cimon there came forward a handsome and 
brilliant young Athenian named Pericles, a descendant of one 
of the old noble families of the line of Clisthenes. He desired 
to build up the splendid Athenian Empire of which Themis- 
tocles had dreamed. He put himself at the head of the party 
of progress and of increased power of the people. He kept 
their confidence year after year, and thus secured his con- 
tinued reelection as strategus. The result was that he became 
the actual head of the State in power, or, as we might say, 
he was the undisputed political '' boss " of Athens from about 
460 B.C. until his untimely death over thirty years later. 



532. Com- 
mercial su- 
premacy of 
the Greeks 
after the 
Persian 
wars ; rise 
of Piraeus, 
the new port 
of Athens 



Section 53. Commercial Development and the Open- 
ing OF THE Struggle between Athens and Sparta 

A period of commercial prosperity followed the Persian wars, 
which gave the Greeks a leadership in trade like that of the Eng- 
lish before the Great War of 19 14. Corinth and the little island 
of yEgina at the front door of Attica, and visible from Athens 
(Fig. 177), rapidly became the most flourishing trading cities 
in Greece. They were at once followed, however, by the little 
harbor town of Piraeus (Fig. 177), built by the foresight of 
Themistocles as the port of Athens. Along its busy docks 
were moored Greek ships from all over the Mediterranean 
world, for the defeat of the Phoenicians in East and West had 
broken up their merchant fleets and thrown much of their 
trade into the hands of the Greeks. Here many a Greek ship 
from the Black Sea, laden with grain or fish, moored along- 
side the grain ships of Egypt and the mixed cargoes from 
Syracuse. For Attica was no longer producing food enough 
for her own need, and it was necessary to import it. The 
docks were piled high with goods from the Athenian factories, 
and long lines of perspiring porters were loading them into 
ships bound for all the harbors of the Mediterranean. Scores 
of battleships stretched far along the shores, and the busy 



ii 



The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 345 

shipyards and dry docks were filled with multitudes of workmen 
and noisy with the sound of many hammers. 

In spite of much progress in navigation, we must not think 533. Limita- 

1 A 1 tions of navi- 

of these ancient ships of Greece as very large. A merchant gation and 
vessel carrying from two hundred and fifty to three hundred shipbuilding 
tons was considered large in fifth-century Greece (contrast 
Fig. 61). Moreover, the Greek ships still clung timidly to 
the shore, and they rarely ventured to sea in the stormy winter 
season.' They had no compass or charts, there were no light- 
houses, and they were often plundered by pirates, so that 
commerce was still carried on at great risks. Moreover, ships 
did not last as long as with us, because the Greeks had no oil 
paint and the Egyptian invention of painting with hot wax was 
probably too expensive. 

On the other hand, the profits gained from sea-borne com- 534- Profits 

1 1 • 1 111 1 from com- 

merce might be very large. A vessel which reached the north merce and 

shores of the Black Sea or the pirate-infested Adriatic might ^" ^^^^ 
sell out its cargo so profitably as to bring back to the owner 
double the first cost of the goods, after paying all expenses. 
Plenty of men were therefore willing to risk their capital in 
such ventures, and indeed many borrowed the money to do 
so. Interest was lower than in Solon's day, and money could 
be borrowed at 10 and 12 per cent. The returns from manu- 
facturing industry were also high, even reaching 30 per cent. 

To measure this increased prosperity of Athens we must 535. Wealth 
not apply the scale of modern business. A fortune of ten 
thousand dollars was looked upon as considerable, while double 
that amount was accounted great wealth. The day laborer's 
wages were from six to ten cents a day, while the skilled 
craftsman received as much as twenty cents a day. Greek 
soldiers were ready to furnish their own arms and enter the 
ranks of any foreign king at five dollars a month. Men of 
intellect, like an architect, received only from twenty to thirty 
cents a day, while the tuition for a course in rhetoric lasting 
several years cost the student from sixty to eighty dollars. 



346 



Ancient Times 



536. In- For nearly thirty years after the Persian wars it was easy to 
po^pufajfon obtain Athenian citizenship. Some thirty thousand strangers 
ancf Attica therefore soon settled in Athens to share in its prosperity. Its 

population rose to above a hundred thousand in the days of 
Pericles (cf. § 461), while the inhabitants of Attica numbered 
over two hundred thousand. This included probably eighty 
thousand slaves, still the cheapest form of labor obtainable. 

537. Money \ As a result of increased business the volume of money in 
prices Athens had also greatly increased. The silver tribute (§ 524) 

and the Attic silver mines furnished metal for additional coin- 
age. In all the markets of the Mediterranean, Athenian silver 
money was the leading coin, and many Persian darics of gold 
(worth about five dollars) also came in. Just as with us, as 
money became more plentiful its value decreased, and a given 
sum would not buy as much as formerly. That is to say, prices 
went up. A measure of barley cost twice as much, and a sheep 
five times as much, as in Solon's day (§ 459). Nevertheless 
living would be called very cheap from our point of view. Even 
the well-to-do citizen did not spend over ten or twelve cents 
a day in food for his family, and a man of wealth was very 
extravagant if he owned furniture to the amount of two 
hundred dollars. 

Money had now become very necessary in carrying on the 
government. Formerly service to the State had been with- 
out pay. This was quite possible in a nation of peasants 
and shepherds ; but with the incoming of coined money and 
steady employment in factories, it was no longer possible for a 
private citizen to give his time to the State for nothing. Many 
a citizen of Athens bought the bread his family needed for 
the day with the money he had earned the day before. The 
daily salaries to thousands of jurymen (§ 528) and to the mem- 
bers of the Council of Five Hundred, who were also paid, 
amounted to not less than a hundred thousand dollars a year. 
Large sums, even sums that would be large to-day, were also 
required for building the sumptuous marble temples now 



538. Cost of 
government : 
salaries, 
temples, 
and religious 
services 



The Growing Rivalry betwee^i Athens and Sparta 347 

frequently dedicated to the gods ; while the offerings, feasts, and 
celebrations at these temples also consumed great sums. 

Greater than all the other expenses of the State, however, 539. Cost of 
was the cost of war. The cost of arming citizens who could war^*^""^^" ' 
not undertake this expense themselves and of feeding the 
army in the field, of course, fell upon the State. The war fleet . 
was, however, the heaviest of all such expenses. Besides the 
first cost of building and equipping the batdeships, there was 
always the further expense of maintaining them. A trireme, 
manned with about two hundred sailors and oarsmen, receiving 
daily half a drachma (nearly ten cents) per man, cost nearly six 
hundred dollars per month. A fleet of two hundred triremes 
therefore required nearly a hundred and twenty thousand 
dollars a month for wages. 

The problem of securing the funds for maintaining and de- 540. income 
fending a nation had become a grave one. As for Athens, mines, taxesj 
the Attic silver mines, however helpful, were far from furnish- ^uties"^ 
ing enough to support the government. The bulk of the State 
funds had to be raised by taxadon. The triumphant democracy 
disliked periodic taxes, and they assessed taxes only when the 
treasury was very low, especially in war time. Besides taxes 
the treasury received a good income from the customs duty on 
all goods imported or exported through Piraeus. The Athenians 
kept these duties low, assessing only one per cent of the value 
of the goods until forced by war expenses to raise them. We 
have already mentioned the contributions (tribute) of the sub- 
ject states of the empire (§ 524). The total income of the 
Athenian State hardly reached three quarters of a million dollars 
in the days of Pericles. 

Small as this seems to us of modern times, no other Greek 541. Sparta 

. , . ... 1 . T financially 

State could raise anythmg like such an annual income. J^east inferior to 
of all could Sparta hope to rival such resources. Without the ^^^'^^^ 
enterprise to enter the new world of commercial competition, 
Sparta clung to her old ways. She still issued only her ancient 
iron money and had no silver coins. To be sure, the standing 



348 



Anciefit Times 



542. New 

defenses of 
Athens ; 
Long Walls 



543. First 
war between 
Athens and 
Sparta (459- 
446 B.C.) 



544. War 

with Persia ; 
the Egyptian 
expedition 



army of Sparta was always ready without expense to the gov- 
ernment (§ 520); but when she led forth the combined armies 
of the Peloponnesian League, she could not bear the expense 
longer than a few weeks. The still greater expense of a large 
war fleet was quite impossible either for Sparta or her League. 
In so far as war was a matter of money, the commercial 
growth of Athens was giving her a constantly growing supe- 
riority over all other Greek states. We can understand then 
with what jealousy and fear Sparta viewed Athenian prosperity. 

Pericles had won favor with the people by favoring a policy 
of hostility to Sparta (§ 525). Foreseeing' the coming struggle 
with Sparta, Pericles greatly strengthened the defenses of 
Athens by inducing the people to connect the fortifications of 
the city with those of the Piraeus harbor by two Long Walls, 
thus forming a road completely walled in, connecting Athens 
and her harbor (plan, p. 352). 

Not long after Pericles gained the leadership of the people, 
the inevitable war with Sparta broke out. It lasted nearly 
fifteen years, with varying fortunes on both sides. The Athe- 
nian merchants resented the keen commercial rivalry of ^gina, 
planted as the flourishing island was at the very front door of 
Attica (see map, p. 352). They finally captured the island 
after a long siege. Pericles likewise employed the Athenian 
navy in blockading for years the merchant fleets of the other 
great rival of Athens and friend of Sparta, Corinth (Fig. 163), 
and thus brought financial ruin on its merchants. 

At the same time Athens dispatched a fleet of two hun- 
dred ships to assist Egypt, which had revolted against Persia. 
The Athenians were thus fighting both Sparta and Persia 
for years. The entire Athenian fleet in Egypt was lost. This 
loss so weakened the Athenian navy that the treasury of the 
Delian League was no longer safe in the little island of Delos, 
against a possible sea raid by the Persians. Pericles therefore 
shifted the treasury from Delos to Athens, an act which made 
the city more than ever the capital of an Athenian empire. 



The Growing Rivalry between Athens and Sparta 349 



When peace was concluded (445 B.C.) all that Athens was 545. Peace 

arta 
rsia 

1 



able to retain was the island of ^Egina, though at the same and Persia 
time she gained control of the large island of Euboea. It was 
agreed that the peace should continue for thirty years. Thus 
ended what is often called the First Peloponnesian War with 
the complete exhaustion of Athens as well as of her enemies in 
the Peloponnesus. Pericles had not shown himself a great 
naval or military commander in this war. The Athenians had 
also arranged a peace with Persia, over forty years after Mara- 
thon. But the rivalry between Athens and Sparta for the 
leadership of the Greeks was still unsettled. The struggle 
was to be continued in another long and weary Peloponnesian 
War. Before we proceed with the story of this fatal struggle 
we must glance briefly at the new and glorious Athens now 
growing up under the leadership of Pericles. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 51. Describe the Spartan State. What can you say of 
the reasons for rivalry between Athens and Sparta? What did 
Themistocles now do? 

Section 52. What combination did Athens now make with the 
eastern Greek cities ? What part did Aristides play ? To what might 
the Delian League easily lead? What policy did Cimon favor? 
What was Themistocles' attitude toward Cimon's policy? What 
then happened to Themistocles? to Cimon? What new victories 
did the people gain? What new council arose, and how did it 
govern? How could a statesman still hold the leadership? Who 
now became the leader of the people's party ? 

Section 53. What happened to Greek business after the Per- 
sian War ? Discuss navigation ; business profits. What can you say 
of the scale of values as compared with to-day ? What happened to 
the population of Athens? How were prices affected? What were 
the chief expenses of the Athenian State ? its chief sources of in- 
come ? Could other states raise as much ? Sketch the First Pelopon- 
nesian War. 



«iiri^^ 




CHAPTER XV 

ATHENS IN THE AGE OF PERICLES 

Section 54. Society, the Home, Education and 
Training of Young Citizens 



546. Athe- 
nian society : 
the wealthy 
classes 



As we have seen, the population of Attica was made up of 
citizens, foreigners, and slaves. In a mixed crowd there would 
usually be among every ten people about four slaves, one or 
two foreigners, and the rest free Athenians (see § 536). A large 
group of wealthy citizens lived at Athens upon the income from 
their lands. They continued to be the aristocracy of the nation, 
for land was still the most respectable form of wealth. The 
wealthy manufacturer hastened to buy land and join the landed 
aristocracy. The social position of his family might thus become 
an influential one, but it could not compare with that of a noble. 

Note. The above headpiece gives us a glimpse into the house of a bride the 
day after the wedding. At the right, leaning against a couch, is the bride. Before 
her are two young friends, one sitting, the other standing, both playing with a 
tame bird. Another friend approaches carrying a tall and beautiful painted vase 
as a wedding gift. At the left a visitor arranges flowers in two painted vases, 
while another lady, adjusting her garment, is looking on. The walls are hung 
with festive wreaths. The furniture of such a house was usually of wood, but 
if the owner's wealth permitted, it was adorned with ivory, silver, and gold. It 
consisted chiefly of beds, like the couch above, chairs (see also Fig. 170), foot- 
stools (as at foot of couch above), small individual tables, and clothing chests 
which took the place of closets. 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 35 1 

On the other hand, anyone who actually performed manual 547. Athe- 
labor was looked down upon as without social station. Athens the"poor'er^' 
was a great beehive of skilled craftsmen and small shopkeepers, ^^'^sses 
These classes were beginning to organize into guilds or unions 
of masons, carpenters, potters, jewelers, and many others- — 
organizations somewhat like our labor unions. Below them was 
an army of unskilled laborers, free men, but little better than 
slaves, like the army of porters who swarmed along the docks 
at Piraeus. All these classes contained many citizens. Never- 
theless the majority of the Athenian citizens were still the 
farmers and peasants throughout Attica, although the Persian 
devastation (§§ 512, 516) had seriously reduced the amount of 
land still cultivated. 

The hasty rebuilding of Athens after the Persians had burned 548. Athe- 
it did not produce any noticeable changes in the houses, nor 
were there any of great size or splendor. Since the appearance 
of the first European houses (§ 26) many thousand years had 
passed, but there were still no beautiful houses anywhere in 
Europe, such as we found on the Nile (Fig. 51). The one- 
story front of even a wealthy man's house was simply a blank 
wall, usually of sun-dried brick, rarely of broken stone masonry. 
Often without any windows, it showed no other opening than 
the door, but a house of two stories might have a small window 
or two in the upper story. The door led into a court open to 
the sky and surrounded by a porch with columns. Here in the 
mild climate of Greece the family could spend much of their 
time as in a sitting room. In the middle stood an altar of the 
household Zeus, the protector of the family ; while around the 
court opened a number of doors leading to a living room, sleep- 
ing rooms, dining room, storerooms, and also a tiny kitchen. 

This Greek house lacked all conveniences. There was no 549. Lack of 

,. ^ r 11-1 r 1 1- jj convenicnces 

chimney, and the smoke from the kitchen nre, though mtended in the Athe- 
to drift up through a hole in the roof, choked the room or "^^^ house 
floated out the door. In winter gusty drafts filled the house, 
for many doorways were without doors, and glass in the form 



352 



Ancient Times 



550. Deco- 
ration and 
equipment 



551. Streets 
of Athens 



of flat panes for the windows was still unknown. In the mild 
Greek climate, however, a pan of burning charcoal, called a 
brazier, furnished enough heat to temper the chilly air of a 
room. Lacking windows, the ground-floor rooms depended en- 
tirely on the doors opening on the court for light. At night 
the dim light of an olive-oil lamp was all that was available. 
There was no plumbing or piping of any kind in the house, 
no drainage, and consequently no sanitary arrangements. The 
water supply was brought in jars by slaves from the nearest 
well or flowing spring. 

The floors were simply of dirt, with a surface of pebbles 
tramped and beaten hard. There was no oil paint, and a plain 
water-color wash, such as we call calcimine, might be used on 
the inside, but if used on the outside would soon wash off, 
exposing the mud brick. The simplicity and bareness of the 
house itself were in noticeable contrast with the beautiful furni- 
ture which the Greek craftsmen were now producing (headpiece, 
p, 350 ; see also the beautiful chairs in Fig. 170). There were 
many metal utensils, among which the ladies' hand mirrors of 
polished bronze were common ; and most numerous of all were 
lovely painted jars, vases, and dishes, along with less preten- 
tious pottery forming the household " crockery." For it will 
be remembered that Greek pottery was the most beautiful ever 
produced by ancient man (Fig. 164, and headpiece, p. 350). 

The view from the Acropolis over the sea of low flat roofs 
disclosed not a single chimney, but revealed a much larger city 
than formerly. Though not laid out in blocks, the city was 
about ten modem city blocks wide and several more in length. 
The streets were merely lanes or alleys, narrow and crooked, 
winding between the bare mud-brick walls of the low houses 
standing wall to wall. There was no pavement, nor any side- 
walk, and a stroll through the town after a rain meant wading 
through the mud. All household rubbish and garbage was 
thrown directly into the street, and there was no system of 
sewage. When one passed a two-story house he might hear ^ 




■*^ t ^ SCAlE OF Y»RPS ~ 

' ^^ 6 '2t)0'4fiO 660'860 1()00 

\ [ I Athens before the Persian ' 

"^ I I Additions to the city br 

Themistocles 479 B C 
Addition to the city by 
Emperor Hadrian 125 A D 



Central Greece and Athens 



Athens hi the Age of Pericles 



353 



warning cry, and spring out of the way barely in time to escape 
being deluged with sweepings or filth thrown from a second- 
story window. The few wells and fountains fed by city water 
pipes did not furnish enough 
water to flush the streets, and 
there was no system of street 
cleaning. During the hot sum- 
mers of the south, therefore, 
Athens was not a healthful 
place of residence. 

All Athens lived out of doors. 
Athenian life was beautifully 
simple and unpretentious, es- 
pecially since richly embroidered 
and colored oriental garments 
had passed away. Almost all 
citizens now appeared in the 
simple white garments which 
we of modern times have come 
to associate with the classical 
Greeks. Gorgeous costume thus 
disappeared in Greece, as it did 
among us in the days of our 
great great-grandfathers. Never- 
theless, the man of elegant 
habits gained a practiced hand 
in draping his costume, and was 
proud of the gracefulness and 
the sweeping lines with which 
he could arrange its folds 
(Fig. 1 80). 

The women were less in- 




FiG. 180. Statue of tmk 
Tragic Poet Sophocles 

The great poet stands in thought- 
ful repose in an attitude of ease, 
which incidentally reveals the 
wonderful beauty of a well-draped 
Greek costume (§ 552). The figure 
is probably our most beautiful 
Greek portrait, and as a work 
of art illustrates the sculpture of 
the fourth century B.C., almost a 
century after Pericles 



552. Cos- 
tume of men 



553. Women 



clined to give up the old finery, for unhappily they had little 
to think about but clothes and housekeeping (Fig. 170). For 
Greek citizens still kept their wives in the background, and 



354 



Anciejtt Times 



554. Child- 
hood and 
school 



555. Sub- 
jects taught 
at school 



they were more than ever mere housekeepers. They had no 
share in the intellectual life of the men, could not appear at 
their social meetings, where serious conversation was carried 
on ; nor were they permitted to witness the athletic games at 
Olympia. Their position was even worse than in the Age of 
the Tyrants (§ 480), and a poetess like Sappho never appeared 
again among the later Greeks. 

The usual house had no garden and the children therefore 
played in the court, running about with toy cart and dog 
or enjoying a swing at the hands of the nurse. There were 
no schools for the girls, but when the boy was old enough 
he was sent to school in charge of an old slave called a 
" pedagogue " (paidagogos), which really means '' leader of a 
child." He carried the boy's books and outfit. There were 
no schools maintained by the state and no schoolhouses. 
School was conducted in his own house by some poor citizen, 
who had perhaps lost his means, or by some other poor per- 
son, perhaps an old soldier or even a foreigner. In any case 
the teacher was much looked down upon. He received- his 
pay from the parents ; but there was a board of state officials 
appointed to look after the schools and to see that nothing 
improper was taught. 

Without special education for his work, the teacher merely 
taught the old-time subjects he had learned in his own youth 
without change (§ 480). Proficiency in music was regarded 
very seriously by the Greeks, not merely for entertainment but 
also and chiefly as an influence toward good conduct. Besides 
learning to read and write as of old (§480 and Fig. 181), the 
pupil learned by heart many passages from the old poets, and 
here and there a boy with a good memory could repeat the en- 
tire Iliad and Odyssey. On the other hand, the boys still 
escaped all instruction in mathematics, geography, or natural 
science. This was doubtless a welcome exemption, for the 
masters were severe, and the Greek boy hated both school 
and schoolmaster. 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 



355 



/ When the Athenian lad reached the age of eighteen years 556. Attain- 
aiM left school, he was received as a citizen^ providing that StSen^ship 
both his parents were of Athenian citizenship, ^he oath which 




Fig. 181. An Athenian School in the Age of Pericles 

These scenes are painted around the center of a shallow bowl, hence 
their pecuHar shape. In A we see at the left a music teacher seated at 
his lyre, giving a lesson to the lad seated before him. In the middle sits 
a teacher of reading and literature, holding an open roll (Fig. 223) from 
which the boy standing before him is learning a poem. Behind the 
boy sits a slave (pedagogue) (§ 554) who brought him to school and 
carried his books. In B we have at the left a singing lesson, aided by 
the flute to fix the tones. In the middle the master sits correcting an 
exercise handed him by the boy standing before him, while behind the 
boy sits the slave (pedagogue) as before 

he took was a solemn reminder of the obligations he now 
assumed. It had been composed by Solon, and it called upon 
the youth " never to disgrace his sacred arms ; never to forsake 



356 



Ancient Times 



557. Incom- 
ing citizens' 
military 
service 



558. Athletic 
grounds : 
Academy and 
Lyceum 



559. The ath- 
letic events of 
the Greeks 



his comrade in the ranks, but to fight for the sacred temples 
and the common welfare, whether alone or with others ; to 
leave his country not in a worse, but in a better state than he 
found it ; to obey the magistrates and the laws and to defend 
them against attack ; finally to hold in honor the religion of 
his country." 

The youth then spent a year in garrison duty at the harbor 
of Piraeus, where he was put through military drill. Then at 
nineteen the young recruits received spear and shield, given to 
each by the State. Thereupon they marched to the theater and 
entered the orchestra circle, where they were presented to the 
citizens of Athens assembled in the theater before the play. 
Another year of garrison service on the frontier of Attic^ 
usually completed the young man's military service, although 
some of the recruits, whose means permitted, joined the small 
body of select Athenian cavalry. 

On completion of his military service, if the wealth and 
station of his family permitted, the Athenian youth was more 
than ever devoted to the new athletic fields in the beautiful 
open country outside the city walls. On the north of Athens, 
outside the Dipylon Gate, was the field known as the Academy. 
It had been adorned by Cimon, who gave great attention to 
the olive groves, and, with its shady walks and seats for loungers, 
it became a place where the Athenians loved to spend their idle 
hours. On the east of the city there was another similar athletic 
ground known as the Lyceum. The later custom of holding 
courses of instructive lectures in these places (§ 759) finally 
resulted in giving to the words '' academy " and " lyceum " the 
associations which they now possess for us. 

The chief events were boxing, wrestling, running, jump- 
ing, casting the javelin, and throwing the disk. Omitting 
the boxiiig, the remaining events formed a fivefold match 
called the pentathlon, which it was a great honor to win at 
Olympia. The earliest contest established at Olympia seems 
to have been a two-hundred-yard dash, which the Greeks 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 357 

called a stadion, that is, six hundred Greek feet. Many other 
contests were added to this, and in the age of Pericles, box- 
ing, or boxing and wrestling combined, the pentathlon, chariot i 
racing, and horseback races made up a program in which all 
Greek youths were anxious to gain distinction (§ 479). A 
generation later some of the philosophers severely criticized 
the Greeks for giving far too much of their time and attention 
to athletic pursuits. 

But other pastimes less worthy were common. An hour or 560. Social 
two of gossip with his friends in the market place often preceded diversions 
the Greek youth's daily visit to the athletic grounds. The after- 
noon might be passed in dawdling about in the barber shop 
or dropping in at some drinking resort to shake dice or venture 
a few drachmas in other games of chance. As the shadows 
lengthened in the market place he frequently joined a company 
of young men at dinner at the house of a friend. Often followed 
by heavy drinking of wine and much singing with the lyre, such 
a dinner might break up in a drunken carouse leading to harum- 
scarum escapades upon the streets, that in our time would cause 
the arrest of the company for disorderly conduct. 

Section 55. Higher Education, Science, and the 
Training gained by State Service 

On the other hand, there were serious-minded men, to whom 561. Coming 
such dinners meant delightful conversation with their com- sophists 
panions on art, literature, music, or personal conduct. Such 
life among the Athenians had now been quickened by the 
appearance of more modern private teachers called Sophists, 
a class of new and clever-witted lecturers who wandered from 
city to city. Many a bright youth who had finished his music, 
reading, and writing at the old-fashioned private school (§ 554) 
annoyed his father by insisting that such schooling was not 
enough and by demanding money to pay for a course of 
lectures delivered by one of these new teachers. 



358 



Ancient Times 



562. Higher 
education 
offered by 
the Sophists 



563. The 

intellectual 
revolution ; 
chasm be- 
tween young 
and old 



For the first time a higher education was thus open to young 
men who had hitherto thought of little more than a victory in 
the Olympic games or a fine appearance when parading with 
the crack cavalry of Athens. The appearance of these new 
teachers therefore marked a new age in the history of the 
Greeks, but especially in that of Athens. In the first place, 
the Sophists recognized the importance of effective public 
speaking in addressing the large citizen juries (§ 528) or in 
speaking before the Assembly of the people. The Sophists 
therefore taught rhetoric and oratory with great success, and 
many a father who had no gift of speech had the pleasure of 
seeing his son a practiced public speaker. It was through the 
teaching of the Sophists also that the first successful writing 
of Greek prose began. At the same time they really founded 
the study of language, which was yet to become grammar 
(§ 753). They also taught mathematics and astronomy, and 
the young men of Athens for the first time began to learn a 
little natural science. Thus the truths which Greek philosophers 
had begun to observe in the days of Thales (§§ 492-493) were, 
after a century and a half, beginning to spread among the 
people. 

In these new ideas the fathers were unable to follow their 
sons. When a father of that day found in the hands of his son 
a book by one of the great Sophists, which began with a state- 
ment doubting the existence of the gods, the new teachings 
seemed impious. The old-fashioned citizen could at least vote 
for the banishment of such impious teachers and the burning 
of their books, although he heard that they were read aloud in 
the houses of the greatest men of Athens. Indeed, some of the 
leading Sophists were friends of Pericles, who stepped in and 
tried to help them when they were prosecuted for their teach- 
ings. The revolution which had taken place in the mind of 
Thales (§ 495) was now taking place in the minds of ever- 
increasing numbers of Greeks, and the situation was yet to 
grow decidedly worse in the opinion of old-fashioned folk. 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 359 

In spite of the spread of knowledge due to the Sophists, the 564. Lack 
average Athenian's acquaintance with science was still very knowle^dge 
limited. This gave him s^reat trouble in the measurement of of science 

c» c shown in time 

time. He still called the middle of the forenoon the " time of measurement 
full market," and the Egyptian shadow clock in the market 
place had not yet led him to speak of an hour of the day by 
number^ as the Egyptians had been doing for a thousand years. 
When it was necessary to limit the length of a citizen's speech 
before the law-court, it was done by allowing him to speak as 
long as it took a given measure of water to run out of a jar 
with a small hole in it. The Greeks still used the moon-months, 
and they were accustomed to insert an extra month every third, 
fifth, and eighth year (§ 150). To be sure, they had often seen 
on the Pnyx, where the Assembly met (Fig. 179), a strange- 
looking tablet bearing a new calendar, set up by a builder and 
engineer named Meton. This man had computed the length of 
the year with only half an hour's error. He had then devised 
his new calendar with a year still made up of moon-months, but 
so cleverly arranged that the last day of the last moon-month in 
every nineteenth year would also be the last day of the year as 
measured by the sun. But all this was quite beyond the average 
citizen's puzzled mind. The archons too shook their heads at 
it and would have nothing to do with it. The old inconvenient, 
inaccurate moon-month calendar, with three thirteen-month 
years in every eight years, was quite good enough for them 
and continued in use. 

Individual scientists continued to make important discoveries. 565. Prog- 
One of them now taught that the sun was a glowing mass of [ronomy^and 
stone '■ larger than the Peloponnesus." He maintained also geography 
that the moon received its light from the sun, that it had 
mountains and valleys like the earth, and that it was inhabited 
by living creatures. Travel was difficult, for there were no 
passenger ships. Except rough carts or wagons, there were 
no conveyances by land. The roads were bad, and the 
traveler went on foot or rode a horse. Nevertheless, Greeks 



36o 



Ancient Times 



i't 



with means were now beginning to travel more frequently. 
This, however, was for information ; travel for pleasure was 
still a century and a half in the future. From long journeys 
in Egypt, and other Eastern countries, Herodotus returned with 
much information regarding these lands. His map (p. 360) 
showed that the Red Sea connected with the Indian Ocean, 
a fact unknown to his predecessor Hecataeus (see map, p. 319). 




Map of the World according to Herodotus 



566. Prog- 
ress in 
medicine 



The scientists were still much puzzled by the cold of the north 
and the warmth of the south, a curious difference which they 
could not yet explain. 

Although without the microscope or the assistance of chemis- 
try, medicine nevertheless made progress. In the first place, the 
Greek physicians rejected the older belief that disease wasi 
caused by evil demons, and endeavored to find the natural 
causes of the ailment. To do this they sought to understand^ 
the organs of the body. They had already discovered that the^ 
brain was the organ of thought, but the arterial system, thej 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 361 

circulation of tlie blood, and the nervous system were still en- 
tirely unknown. Without a knowledge of the circulation of the 
blood, surgery was unable to attempt amputation, but other- 
wise it made much progress. The greatest physician of the 
time was Hippocrates, and he became the founder of scientific 
medicine. The fame of Greek medicine was such that the 
Persian king called a Greek physician to his court. 

Just at the close of Pericles' life, in the midst of national 567. Prog- 
calamities, the historian Herodotus, who had long been at work history 
on his histoiy, finally published his great work. It was a history Herodotus 
of the world so told that the glorious leadership of Athens 
would be clear to all Greeks and would show them that to her 
the Hellenes owed their deliverance from Persia. Throughout 
Greece it created a deep impression, and so tremendous was its 
effect in Athens that, in spite of the financial drain of war, the 
Athenians voted Herodotus a reward of ten talents, some 
twelve thousand dollars. In this earliest history of the world 
which has come down to us, Herodotus traced the course of 
events as he believed them to be directed by the will of the 
gods, and as prophesied in their divine oracles. There was 
little or no effort to explain historical events as the result of 
natural processes. 

Besides the instruction received from the Sophists by many 568. Edu- 
young men, their constant share in public affairs was giving discipline 
them an experience which greatly assisted in producing an in- Itete ser^ce 
telligent body of citizens. In the Council of Five Hundred, citi- 
zens learned to carry on the daily business of the government. 
On some days also as many as six thousand citizens might be 
serving as jurors (§ 528). This service alone meant that one 
citizen in five was engaged in duties which sharpened his wits 
and gave him some training in legal and business affairs. At 
the same time such duties kept constantly in the citizen's mind 
his obligations toward the State and community. 

This led many citizens to surprisingly generous contributions. 
It was not uncommon for a citizen to undertake the entire 



362 



Ancient Times 



569. Volun- 
tary contri- 
butions by 
citizens 



570. 
feast 



State 
t easts 



equipment of a warship except the hull and spars, though this 
service may have been compulsory. i\t national festivals a 
v^ealthy man would sometimes furnish a costly dinner for all the 
members of his " tribe." The choruses for public performances, 
especially at the theater, were organized by private citizens, who 
paid for their training and for their costumes at great expense 
(Fig. 190). We know of one citizen who spent in the voluntary 
support of feasts and choruses in nine years no less than four- 
teen thousand dollars, a considerable fortune in those days. 

Public festivals maintained by the State also played an im- 
portant part in the lives of all Athenians. Every spring at the 
ancient Feast of Dionysus (§ 483) the greatest play-writers each 
submitted three tragedies and a comedy to be played in the 
theater for a prize given by the State. All Athens streamed to 
the theater to see them. Many other State festivals, celebrated 
with music and gayety, filled the year with holidays so numerous 
that they fell every six or seven days. The great State feast, 
called the Paftathencea , occurred every four years. A brilliant 
procession made up of the smart young Athenian cavalry, 
groups of dignified government officials, priests and sacrificial 
animals, marched with music and rejoicing across the market 
place, carrying a beautiful new robe embroidered by the women 
of Athens for the goddess Athena. The procession marched to 
the Acropolis, where the robe was delivered to the goddess 
amid splendid sacrifices and impressive ceremonies. Contests 
in music and in athletic games, war dances and a regatta in 
the channel off Salamis, served to furnish entertainment for the 
multitude which flocked to Athens for the great feast. 



571. The 

higher life 
of imperial 
Athens ; the 
glorified 
State 



Section 56. Art and Literature | 

Although the first fifteen years of the leadership of Pericles I 
were burdened with the Spartan and Persian wars, the higher j 
life of Athens continued to unfold. Under influences like those 
we have been discussing, a new vision of the glory of the State. 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 363 

discerned nowhere else in the world before this age, caught the 
imagination of poet and painter, of sculptor and architect ; and 
not of these alone, but also of the humblest artisan and trades- 
man, as all classes alike took part in the common life of the 
community. Music, the drama, art, and architecture were pro- 
foundly inspired by this new and exalted vision of the State, and 
the citizen found great works of art so inspired thrust into the 
foreground of his life. 

We can still follow the Athenian citizen and note a few of 572. Painting 
the noble monuments that met his eye as he went about the 
new Athens which Pericles was creating. When he wandered 
into the market place and stood chatting -with his friends under 
the shade of the plane trees, he found at several points colon- 
naded porches looking out upon the market. One of these, ! 
which had been presented to the city by Cimon's family, was 
called the " Painted Porch " ; for the wall behind the columns 
bore paintings by Polygnotus, an artist from one of the is- 
land possessions of Athens, a gift of the painter to the Athe- 
nians, depicting their glorious victory at Marathon. Here in 
splendid panorama was a vision of the heroic devotion of the 
fathers. In the thick of the fray the citizen might pick out the 
figure of Themistocles, of Miltiades, of Callimachus, who fell 
in the battle, of ^Eschylus the great tragic poet. He could see 
the host of the fleeing Persians and perhaps hear some old 
man tell how the brother of ^schylus seized and tried to stop 
3ne of the Persian boats drawn up on the beach, and how a 
desperate Persian raised his ax and slashed off the hand of the 
Drave Greek. Perhaps among the group of eager listeners he 
noticed one questioning the veteran carefully and making full 
lotes of all that he could learn from the graybeard. The ques- 
:ioner was Herodotus, collecting from survivors the tale of the 
Persian wars for his great history (§ 567). 

Behind the citizen rose a low hill, known as " Market Hill," 573. Lack of 
iround which were grouped plain, bare government buildings. for^govern°^^ 
Here were the assembly rooms of the Areopagus (§ 528) and ment offices 



,J5- 



.^ 



ff: 











'"Si 



"'i.iii : ^1 



364 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 365 

the Council of Five Hundred. The Council's Committee of 
Fifty (§ 528), carrying on the current business of the govern- 
ment, also had its offices here. The citizen recalled how, as a 
member of this Council, he had lived here for over a month 
while serving on that committee and had taken his nieals in 
the building before him, at the expense of the State, along 
with the Athenian victors in the Olympic games and other 
deserving citizens who were thus pensioned by the govern- 
ment. In spite of the growing sentiment for the gioiy of the 
State, these plain buildings, like the Athenian houses, were all 
built of sun-dried mud brick or, at most, of rough rubble. The 
idea of great and beautiful buildings for the offices of the 
government was still unknown in the Mediterranean world, 
and no such building yet existed in Europe. 

The sentiment toward the State was so mingled with rever- 574. The 
ence for the gods who protected the State that patriotism buildings 
was itself a deeply religious feeling. Hence the great public ^"^^ temples 
buildings of Greece were temples and not quarters for the 
offices of the government. As the citizen turned from the 
Painted Porch, therefore, he might observe crossing the market 

* In this view we stand inside the wall of Themistocles, near the 
Dipylon Gate in the Potters' Quarter (see plan, p. 352). In the fore- 
ground is the temple of Theseus, the legendary unifier of Attica, whom 
all Athenians honored as a god and to whom this temple was long 
supposed (perhaps wrongly) to have been erected. It is built of Pen- 
telic marble and was finished a few years after the death of Pericles; 
but now, after twenty-three hundred years or more, it is still the best 
preserved of all ancient Greek buildings. Above the houses, at the ex- 
treme right, may be seen one corner of the hill called the Areopagus 
(see plan, p. 352), often called Mars' Hill. It was probably here that the 
apostle Paul (§ 1068) preached in Athens (see Acts xvii). The buildings 
we see on the Acropolis are all ruins of the structures erected after the 
place had been laid waste by the Persians (§ 512). The Parthenon (§ 576), 
in the middle of the hill (see Fig. 183), shows the gaping hole caused 
by the explosion of a Turkish powder magazine ignited by a Venetian 
shell in 1687, when the entire central portion of the building was blown 
out. The space between the temple of Theseus, the Areopagus, and 
the Acropolis was largely occupied by the market place of Athens 
(§ 572, and plan, p. 352). 



366 



Ancient Times 



575. Plans 
■of Pericles 
for the resto- 
ration of the 
Acropolis 



576. The 

entrance to 
the Acropolis 
and the 
Parthenon 



many a creaking wagon, heavily loaded with white blocks 
of marble for a new and still unfinished temple of Theseus 
(Fig. .182), the hero-god, who, as the Athenians thought, had 
once united Attica into a single nation. 

Above him towers the height of the Acropolis, about one 
thousand feet in length, two of our city blocks (Figs. 182 and 
183). There, on its summit, had always been the dwelling 
place of Athena, whose arm was ever stretched out in protec- 
tion over her beloved Athens. But for long years after the re- 
pulse of the Persians, the Acropolis rose smoke-blackened over 
the rebuilt houses of the city, and no temple of Athena ap- 
peared to replace the old building of Pisistratus, which the 
Persians had burned. Now at last Pericles has undertaken the 
restoration of the ancient shrines on a scale of magnificence 
and beauty before unknown anywhere in the Greek world. His 
sumptuous plans have demanded an expense of about two 
and a quarter millions of dollars, a sum far exceeding any 
such public outlay ever heard of among the Greeks. As he 
passes the Market Hill, where the Areopagus meets, the citizen 
remembers the discontented mutterings of the old men in this 
ancient Council as they heard of these vast expenses, and he 
smiles in satisfaction as he reflects that this unprogressive old 
body, once so powerful in Athenian affairs, has been deprived 
of all power to obstruct the will of the people. From here he 
also catches a glimpse of the Pnyx (Fig. 179), where he has 
heard Pericles make one eloquent speech after another in sup- 
port of his new building plans before the assembly of the 
people, and he recalls with what enthusiasm the citizens voted 
to adopt them. 

As he looks up at the gleaming marble shafts, he feels that 
the architectural splendor now crowning the Acropolis is the 
work of the Athenian people^ a world of new beauty in the 
creation of which every Athenian citizen has had a voice. 
Here before him rise the imposing marble colonnades of the 
magnificent monumental entrance to the Acropolis (Fig. 183). 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 



367 




Fig. 183. Restoration of the Athenian Acropolis 

The lower entrance {A) is of Roman date. Beyond it we have on the 
right the graceful little Temple of Victory {B, and see headpiece, p. 378), 
while before us rises the colonnaded entrance building {C) designed 
by Mnesicles {§ 576). As we pass through it we stand beside the colossal 
bronze statue of Athena {D) by Phidias (§ 577), beyond which at the 
left is the ancient sanctuary of the Erechtheum (/'and § 644). To the 
right, along the south edge of the hill, is the wonderful temple of the 
Parthenon {E) (Fig. 185, and Plate IV, p. 380). Its farther corner looks 
down upon the theater {H) (Fig. 189). The other theater-like building (/) 
in the foreground is a concert hall, built by Herodes Atticus, a wealthy 
citizen, in Roman times (second century A.D.). G is the foundation of an 
ancient temple (now destroyed) older than the present Parthenon 

It is Still unfinished, and the architect Mnesicles, with a roll of 
plans under his arm, is perhaps at the moment directing a group 
of workmen to their task. He is beginning to employ a new 
style of column, called the Ionic (Fig. 184); it is lighter and 
more ornate than the stately Doric. The tinkle of many distant 







Fig. 184. The Ionic Column and its Oriental Predecessors 
(After Puchstein) 

A is a. column of wood as used in houses and shrines in Egypt (fifteenth 
century B.C.); notice at the top of ^ the lily with the ends of the petals 
rolled over in spirals called volutes. B is part of a wall with beauti- 
fully decorative designs in colored glazed brick from the throne room 
of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon (Fig. no); on this wall we see the same 
lily design appearing twice. D shows us a capital used in the begin- 
nings of Greek architecture in Asia Minor, with the lily petals forming 
the volutes rolled further over but still showing its relationship with A. 
This process is carried so far in F, a capital dug up on the Acropolis 
of Athens, that we lose sight of the lily. H finally shows us the fully 
developed Ionic column, in which the volutes hardly resemble any 
longer the lily from which they came. This column {H) is taken from 
the colonnade of the Temple of Victory on the Acropolis of Athens 
(headpiece, p. 378). Examples of this style of column are now common 
in our own public buildings 



368 



A thefts in the Age of Pericles 369 

hammers from the height above tells where the stonecutters are 
shaping the marble blocks for the still unfinished Parthenon, a 
noble temple dedicated to Athena (Figs. 183, 185, and Plate IV, 
p. 380) ; and there, too, the people often see Pericles intently- 
inspecting the building, as Phidias the sculptor and Ictinus the 
architect of the building pace up and down the inclosure, ex- 
plaining to him the progress of the work. In these wondrous 
Greek buildings architect and sculptor work hand in hand. 

Phidias is the greatest of the sculptors at Athens. In a long 577. Phidias 
band of carved marble extending entirely around the four sides ^ures of^the^ 
of the Parthenon, at the top inside the colonnades (Plate IV, Parthenon 
p. 380), Phidias and his pupils have portrayed, as in a glorified 
vision, the sovereign people of Athens moving in the stately 
procession (Fig. 186) of the Pan-Athenaic festival (§ 570). 
To be sure, these are not individual portraits of actual Athenian 
folk, but only types which lived in the exalted vision of the 
sculptor, and not on the streets of Athens. But such sculpture 
had never been seen before. How different is the supreme 
beauty of these perfect human forms from the cruder figures 
which adorned the temple burned by the Persians. The citizen 
has seen the shattered fragments of these older works cleared 
away and covered with rubbish when the architects leveled off 
the summit of the Acropolis.^ Inside the new temple gleams 
the colossal figure of Athena, wrought by the cunning hand of 
Phidias in gold and ivory. Even from the city below the citizen 
can discern, touched with bright colors, the heroic figures of 
the gods with which Phidias has filled the triangular gable ends 
of the building (Fig. 185). Out in the open area behind the 
colonnaded entrance rises another great work of Phidias, a 
colossal bronze statue of Athena, seventy feet high as it stands 
on its tall base (Fig. 183, D). With shield and spear the goddess 
stands, the gracious protectress of Athens, and the glittering 

1 Till recently they lay buried under the rubbish on the slope (Fig. 182). 
The excavations of the Greek government have recovered them, and they are 
now in the Acropolis Museum at Athens. 



370 



Ancient Times 



point of her gilded spear can be seen shining like a beacon 
far across the land, even by the sailors as they round the 
southern tip of Attica (see map, p. 352) and sail homeward. 




Fig. 185. Restoration of the Parthenon, as it was in the 
Fifth Century b.c. (After Thiersch and Michaelis) 

This is the noble temple of Athena erected on the Acropolis of Athens 
(Fig. 183, E) by Pericles with the architect Ictinus and the sculptor 
Phidias (§ 576). The restoration shows us the wonderful beauty of 
the Doric colonnades as they were when they left the hands of the 
builders. In Plate IV, p. 380, we gain a glimpse of the same colon- 
nades as they are to-day, after the explosion of the Turkish powder 
magazine, the effect of which can be seen in Fig. 182. The gable 
ends each contained a triangular group of sculpture depicting the 
birth of Athena and her struggle with Poseidon, god of the sea, for 
possession of Attica. The wonderful frieze of Phidias (Fig. 186 and 
§ 577) extended around the building inside the colonnades at the top 
of the wall 



578. The 
drama ; 
iEschylus 



In Spite of the Sophists (§ 563), these are the gods to whom 
the faith of the Athenian people still reverently looks up. Have 
not Athena and these gods raised the power of Athens to the 




''''*^'^mmaM^^mM«m'mmn!)</Mm,M^ 




Fig. 187. Praxiteles' Figure of Hermes playing with the 
Child Dionysus 
This wonderful statue was discovered in the ruins of the Hera temple at 
Olvmnia (headpiece, p. 295), and is one of the few original works of the 
^e'a7Griek S^^^ in Greece. Nearly all . such Greek orgina^ 

have perished, and we know them only in Roman copies (§ 1053)- In ^^^ up 
lifted right hand (now broken off) the god probably held a bunch of grapes, 
with which he was amusing the child (^ 04^) 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 371 

imperial position which she now occupies? Do not all the 
citizens recall ^schylus' drama " The Persians " ? It told 
the story of the glorious victory of Salamis, and in it the 
memories of the great deliverance from Persian conquest were 
enshrined. How that tremendous day of Salamis was made 
to live again in the imposing picture which the poet's genius 
brought before them, disclosing the mighty purpose of the gods 
to save Hellas ! 

As he skirts the sheer precipice of the Acropolis the citizen 579. Theater 
reaches the theater (see plan, p. 352, and Fig. 183, ZT), where 
he finds the people are already entering, for the Feast of Diony- 
sus (§ 570) has arrived. Only yesterday he and his neighbors 
received from the State treasury the money for their admission. 
It is natural that they should feel that the theater and all that 
is done there belong to the people, and not the less as the 
citizen looks down upon the orchestra circle and recognizes 
his friends and neighbors and their sons in the chorus for 
that day's performance. The seats are of wood, and they 
occupy the slope at the foot of the Acropolis. Hence they 
are not elevated on timbers, and there is no danger of their 
falling and killing the spectators as they once did when the 
theater was a temporary structure in the market place, in the 
days of the citizen's grandfather. All the citizens have turned 
out, including some less worthy and intelligent, who do not 
hesitate to indulge in cat-calls, or pelt the actors with food, if 
the play displeases them. The play would seem strange enough 
to us, for there is little or no scenery; and the actors, who are 
always men, wear grotesque masks, a survival of old days 
(§ 483). The narrative is largely carried on in song by the 
chorus (§ 483), but this is varied by the dialogue of the actors, 
and the whole is not unlike an opera. 

A play of Sophocles (Fig. 180) is on, and the citizen's neigh- 580. Sopho- 
bor in the next seat leans over to tell him how as a lad many 
years ago he stood on the shore of Salamis, whither his family 
had fled (§51 2), and as they looked down upon the destruction 



372 



Ancient Times 



581. 

des 



Euripi- 



of the Persian fleet this same Sophocles, a boy of sixteen, was 
in the crowd looking on with the rest. How deeply must the 
events of that tragic day have sunk into the poet's soul ! For 
does he not see the will of the gods in all that happens to men ? 
Does he not celebrate the stern decree of Zeus everywhere 
hanging over human life, at the same time that he uplifts his 

audience to adore the splen- 
dor of Zeus, however dark 
the destiny he lays upon 
men ? For Sophocles still 
believes in the gods, and is 
no friend of the Sophists. 
Hence the citizen feels that 
Sophocles is a veritable voice 
of the people, exalting the 
old gods in the new time. 
Moreover, in place of the 
former two, Sophocles has 
t/wee actors in his plays, a 
change which makes them 
more interesting and full of 
action. Even old ^schylus 
yielded to this innovation 
once before he died. Yet too 
much innovation is also un- 
welcome to the citizen. 
The citizen feels this es- 
pecially if it is one of the new sensational plays of Euripides 
which is presented. Euripides (Fig. 188) is the son of a farmer 
who lives over on the island of Salamis (Fig. 177). He has for 
some time been presenting plays at the spring competition 
(§ 570). He is a friend and companion of the Sophists, and 
in matters of religion his mind is shadowed with doubts. 
His new plays are all inwrought with problems and mental 
struggle regarding the gods, and they have raised a great 




Fig. 



188. Portrait of 
Euripides 



The name of the poet (§ 581) is en- 
graved in Greek letters along the 
lower edge of the bust 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 373 

many questions and doubts which the citizen has never been 
able to banish from bis own mind since he heard them. 
The citizen determines that he will use all the influence he has 
to prevent the plays of Euripides from winning the prize. In- 
deed, Sophocles suits all the old-fashioned folk, and it is very 
rarely that Euripides has been able to carry off the prize, in 
spite of his great ability. The citizen feels some anxiety as he 
realizes that his own son and most of the other young men of 
his set are enthusiastic admirers of Euripides. They constantly 
read his plays and talk them over with the Sophists. 

The great tragedies were given in the morning, and in the 582. Com 
afternoon the people were ready for less serious entertainment, 
such as the comedy offered. Out of the old-time masques and 
burlesque frolics of the village communities at country feasts 
the comedy had developed into a stage performance, with all 
the uproarious antics of the unbridled comedian. The play- 
writer did not hesitate to introduce the greatest dignitaries of 
the State. Even Pericles was not spared, and great philosophers, 
or serious-minded wTiters like Euripides, were shown in absurd 
caricatures and made irresistibly ridiculous on the stage, while the 
multitudes of Athens vented their delight in roars of laughter 
mingled with shouts and cheers. Parodies on great passages of 
literature, too, were sure of a quick response, so keen was the 
wit of the Athenians and so widespread the acquaintance of the 
people with the literature which they had inherited. 

When all was over they must wait until the next spring feast 583. Con- 
of Dionysus before they were privileged to see any more plays, widespread 
But meantime they were greatly interested in the decision of "^terest in 
the jury of citizens awarding prizes for tragedy, for comedy, literature 
and for the best chorus a bronze tripod to the citizen who had 
equipped and trained it (Fig. 190). Moreover, the interest in 
drama and the theater continued, for the next competition 
soon demanded that probably two thousand men and boys 
of Athens should put all their leisure time into learning their 
parts written out for them on sheets of papyrus and into 



^^m- 



:t~ 



4^^ 



^:^^^^j^f70]tHi',^^M 





WS^^^^-^^^ ' 



^^ / 






Fig. 189. The Theater of Athens 

This theater was the center of the growth and development of Greek 
drama, which began as a part of the celebration of the spring feast of 
Dionysus, god of the vine and the fruitfulness of the earth (§ 420). 
The temple of the god stood here, just at the left. Long before any- 
one knew of such a thing as a theater, the people gathered at this 
place to watch the celebration of the god's spring feast, where they 
formed a circle about the chorus, which narrated in song the stories of 
the gods (§ 483). This circle (called the orchestra) was finally marked 
out permanently, seats of wood for the spectators were erected in a 
semicircle on one side, but the singing and action all took place in the 
circle on the level of the ground. On the side opposite the public was 
a booth, or tent (Greek, sk^ne, " scene "), for the actors, and out of this 
finally developed the stage. Here we see the circle, or orchestra, 
with the stage cutting off the back part of the circle. The seats are of 
stone and accommodated possibly seventeen thousand people. The 
fine marble seats in the front row were reserved for the leading men of 
Athens. The old wooden seats were still in use in the days when 
iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides presented their dramas here 
(§§ 578-582). From the seats the citizens had a grand view of the sea, 
with the island of ^gina, their old-time rival (§ 543) ; and even the 
heights of Argolis, 40 miles away, were visible ; for orchestra and seats 
continued roofless, and a Greek theater was always open to the sky. 
In Roman times a colonnaded porch across the back of the stage 
was introduced, and such columns of Roman date may be seen in 
Plate VII, p. 560. For the best-preserved early Greek theater, see 
tailpiece, p. 393 

374 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 375 

training and rehearsals for the various choruses. Thousands 
of citizens too were reading the old plays that had already 
been presented. 

For now at length books too had come to take an important 584. Books 
place in the life of Athens. Rows of baskets of cylindrical 
shape held the books which filled the shelves in our Athenian 
citizen's libraiy. Homer and the works of the old classic poets 
were now written on long rolls of papyrus, as much as a hun- 
dred and fifty or sixty feet in length. To one of these rolls the 
educated Greek sat down as the Egyptian had so long before 
been accustomed to do (Fig. 191). For lack of good artificial 
light, reading was necessarily done mostly by day, but studious 
Greeks also ventured to try their eyes in reading by the dim 
olive-oil lamp. Besides literary works, all sorts of books of in- 
struction began to appear. The sculptors wrote of their art, 
and Ictinus produced a book on his design of the Parthenon 
(§ 576). There was a large group of books on medicine, bear- 
ing the name of Hippocrates. Textbooks on mathematics and 
rhetoric circulated, and the Athenian housekeeper could even 
find a cookbook at the bookshop. 

In our voyage up the Nile (§ 115), we found that far back 585 Con- 
in the Egyptian Empire, a thousand years before the days of Athens an/ 
Pericles, there was a group of gifted men who created at Thebes SPu*^^^" 
a grand and imperial city of noble architecture. But that group 
of great Egyptians was not made up of citizens^ nor had the 
multitudes of Thebes any share in government or in the 
creation of the magnificent city. It was very different in the 
Athens of Pericles. Here had grown up a whole community 
of intelligent men, who were the product of the most active 
interest in the life and government of the community, con- 
stantly sharing in its tasks and problems, in daily contact 
with the greatest works of art in literature, drama, painting, 
architecture, and sculpture — such a wonderful community 
indeed as the ancient world, Greek or oriental, had never 
seen before. 



3/6 Ancient Times 

586. The old Not only was it totally different from any that we have found 
the new^" ^'^ ^^ ancient Orient, but we see also how very different from 
the Athens of the old days before the Persian Wars was this 
imperial Athens of Pericles ! — throbbing with new life and 
astir with a thousand questions eagerly discussed at every 
corner. Keenly awake to the demands of the greater State and 
the sovereign people, the men of the new Athens were deeply 
pondering also the duties and privileges of the individual, who 
felt new and larger visions of himself conflicting with the exac- 
tions of the State and the old faith. Troubled by serious doubts, 
they were, nevertheless, clinging with wistful apprehension to 
the old gods and the old truths. Under Pericles Athens was 
becoming as he desired it should, the teacher of the Greek 
world. It now remained to be seen whether the people^ in 
sovereign control of the State, could guide her wisely and 
maintain her new power. As we watch the citizens of Athens 
endeavoring to furnish her with wise and successful guidance, 
we shall find another and a sadly different side of the life of 
this wonderful community. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 54. What can you say of the population of Attica as to 
social classes.? Discuss the rich and the poor. Were there any 
beautiful houses in Europe in Pericles' time .? Describe an Athenian 
house of this age ; its conveniences ; its equipment ; its decoration. 
What were the streets of Athens like ? Describe Greek costume in 
this age. What was now the position of women? Describe the 
usual school and its teacher. What subjects were taught .-^ What did 
a boy do when he left school ? What oath of citizenship did he take ? 
Tell about his military service; his athletic training. What were 
the chief events in athletics 1 

Section ^^. What new private teachers now began to appear.? 
What did these men teach ? Did a boy learn from them anything 
which his father had not been taught ? What did the fathers think 
about the teaching of the Sophists ? Was there any general knowl- 
edge of science ? How was the time of day designated ? How was 
time measured within the day? within the year? What were the 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 



377 



difficulties? What discoveries were made in astronomy? in geog- 
raphy? What progress was made in medicine? in history-writing? 
How did government business train the citizens of Athens? Tell 
about voluntary contributions by the citizens. What can you say 
about official State feasts at Athens? 

Section 56. How did warmth of patriotic feeling affect music, 
the drama, art, and architecture ? Discuss the painting of Marathon 
in the Athenian market place. Do you see any connection between 
art and patriotism in such a work ? Were there any fine government 
office buildings in Athens under Pericles ? What was the material of 
such buildings ? What were the beautiful public buildings of Greece 
at this time ? How did the Athenian Acropolis look after the Persian 
Wars? What did Pericles do about it? Who opposed him? Was 
there a majority of Athenian citizens who wanted such great works 
as Pericles planned ? How then did he put his plan through ? Who 
assisted Pericles in carrying out the actual work on the Acropolis? 
What buildings did they erect? Describe the sculpture of Phidias. 

What play did yEschylus write about the war with Persia? Do 
you see any connection between literature and patriotism in such a 
work? Describe the theater where such plays were presented at 
Athens. Did a citizen pay for his own ticket? Describe a play in 
such a theater. Who was Sophocles ? What did he think about the 
gods and the Sophists? How many actors did he have? 

What did Euripides think about the gods? To which of these 
two men did the Athenians vote the most prizes ? What did an old- 
fashioned citizen think about having his son read the plays of Eurip- 
ides? Tell about the comedies played at Athens. How did the 
Athenians take part in drama and music ? What did a book look like 
in this age? What books could a citizen find at the bookshop? 
Contrast Athens and Egyptian Thebes. In what ways was the 
Athens of Pericles different from that of Solon? 



Note. 



The sketch below shows us vase-paintings of Greek children at play. 






,^g@^-A4\ 




CHAPTER XVI 

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA AND 
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 

Section 57. The Tyranny of Athens and the 
Second Peloponnesian War 



587. States of 
the Athenian 
Empire be- 
come help- 
less subjects 



While Athens under the guiding hand of Pericles had thus 
made herself the chief center of refined and civilized life in the 
Greek world, her political situation was in a number of ways 
becoming a serious one both within and without her empire. 
When the danger from Persia had long passed and some of 
the island states of the Empire wished to withdraw, Athens 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the lovely little Temple of Victory, still 
standing on the Acropolis (B in Fig. 183). It was demolished by the Turks, who 
built a battery out of its blocks. When the Turkish works were cleared away in 
1835, *h^ fragments of the temple were discovered and it was put together again. 
The roof, however, is still lacking (but see Z?in restoration, p. 340). It was prob- 
ably built, or at least begun, in the latter part of the leadership of Pericles. The 
columns display the incoming Ionic form (Fig. 184) and are among the most 
beautiful examples of this style, or, as it is commonly calkd, " Qrder," 

378 



The Struggle betwee7t Athens and Sparta 379 

would not permit them to do so. She sent out her war fleet, 
conquered the rebellious islands, and forced them to pay 
money tribute instead of contributing ships. Often many of 
their citizens were driven out and their lands were divided 
among the Athenian settlers. A section of the Athenian fleet 
was on constant duty to sail about in the ^gean and collect 
the tribute money by force (see map II, p. 344). These funds 
were used by Athens as she pleased, and the magnificent build- 
ings of Pericles were paid for out of this tribute. 

Moreover, the democracy of Athens was most undemocratic 588. Change 

. , . . r 1 i" the policy 

in its treatment of these outsiders m the other cities ot the of Athens 
Empire. For, about the middle of the century the Athenians, citfSnsWp 
led by Pericles, abolished the former liberal policy of granting 
citizenship to outsiders (§536) and passed a very strict law limit- 
ing Athenian citizenship to those whose parents were themselves 
citizens of Athens. This law kept the people of the Empire 
really foreigners and deprived Athens of the large body of 
loyal citizens which she might have gained from among the 
subject cities. 

At the same time Athens forced the people of the Empire 589. Tyranny 
to come there to settle their legal differences before her citizen- and discon- 
juries. For this purpose the people of distant island states Empj^e^^'^ 
were often obliged to make the expensive and inconvenient 
journey to Athens. There was no feeling of unity within the 
Empire, for the Council of representatives from the states of 
the Empire, which once guided its affairs, no longer held any 
meetings. Athens was in complete control and governed them 
as she liked. They saw how much easier were the conditions 
under which the members of the Spartan League lived, and 
more than one of them sent secret messages to Sparta, with 
the purpose of throwing off Athenian control and going over 
to Sparta. 

While such was the state of affairs within the Athenian 590. Hos- 

_ . . rr^, tility of the 

Empire, conditions outside were even more serious. I he out- rivals of 
ward splendor of Athens, her commercial prosperity, the visible ^^'^^"^ 



38o 



Ancient Times 



591. Open- 
ing of Second 
Pelopon- 
nesian War 
(431 B.C.) 
and Pericles' 
plan of cam- 
paign 



growth of her power, her not very conciliatory attitude toward 
her rivals, and the example she offered of the seeming success 
of triumphant democracy — all these things were causes of 
jealousy to a backward and conservative military State like 
Sparta, where most of the citizens were still unable to read, 
iron money continued in use, and the town remained an open 
settlement without walls or defenses (Fig. 178). Moreover, 
this feeling of unfriendliness toward Athens was not confined 
to Sparta but was quite general throughout Greece. The mer- 
chants of Corinth (Fig. 163) found Athenian competition a con- 
tinuous vexation, and when Athenian possessions in the north 
^gean revolted and received support from Corinth and Sparta, 
the fact that hardly half of the thirty years' term of peace 
(§ 545) had expired did not prevent the outbreak of war. 

It seemed as if all European Greece not included in the 
Athenian Empire had united against Athens, for Sparta con- 
trolled the entire Peloponnesus except Argos, and north of 
Attica, Boeotia led by Thebes, as well as its neighbors on the 
west, were hostile to Athens. The support of Athens consisted 
of the ^gean cities which made up her empire and a few out- 
lying allies of little power. She began the struggle with a large 
war treasury and a fleet which made her undisputed mistress 
of the sea. But she could not hope to cope with the land 
forces of the enemy, which, some thirty thousand strong, had 
planned to meet in the Isthmus in the spring of 431 B.C. 
Accordingly, Pericles' plan for the war was to throw all the 
resources of Athens into naval enterprises and make no effort 
to defend Attica by land. When the Peloponnesian army 
entered Attica the country communities were directed by 
Pericles to leave their homes and take refuge in the open 
markets and squares of Athens, the sanctuaries, and especially 
between the Long Walls leading to the Piraeus. Here they 
were safe behind the strong defenses of Athens and her port. 
To offset the devastation of Attica by the Spartan army, all 
that Athens could do was to organize destructive sea raids and 




Plate \V. A Corner of the Parthenon 

Looking through the Doric colonnades as they are to-day, at the southeast 
corner of the building, to the distant hills of Hymettus. On the left is the 
base of the wall of the interior, destroyed by the explosion (p. 365, footnote). 
At the top of this wall was the frieze of Phidias (Fig. 1S6 and § 577) 



The Struggle betiveeii Athens and Sparta 381 



inflict as much damage 
Peloponnesus or blockade 
of old (map II, p. 344). 

The masses of people 
crowded within the walls 
of Athens under the 
unsanitary conditions w^e 
have already described 
(§ 551), exposed the city 
to disease; a plague, 
brought in from the 
Orient, raged with inter- 
missions for several sea- 
sons. It carried off ■ 
probably a third of the 
population, and from 
this unforeseen disaster 
Athens never recovered. 
Constantly under arms 
for the defense of the 
walls, deprived of any 
opportunity to strike the 
enemy, forced to sit still 
and see their land rav- 
aged, the citizens at last 
broke out in discontent. 

Even before the be- 
ginning of the war there 
had been signs that the 
power of Pericles was 
waning. He was a 
thoroughly modern man, 
associated openly with 
the Sophists, and very 
evidently held their views. 



as possible along the coasts of the 
and destroy Corinthian commerce as 




592. The 

plague in 
Athens 



Fig. 190. Monument commemorat- 
ing THE Triumph of an Athenian 

Citizen in Music 
An entire street of Athens was filled 
with such monuments (§ 583). We learn 
the name of the citizen, Lysicrates, who 
erected this beautiful monument, from 
the inscription it still bears, which reads: 
" Lysicrates . . . was choragus [leader of 
the chorus] when the boy-chorus of the 
tribe of Akamantis won the prize; Theon 
was a flute-player, Lysiades of Athens 
trained the choir. Euaenetus was archon." 
The archon's name dates the erection of 
the monument for us in 335 to 334 B.C. 
Beyond the monument we look west- 
ward to the back of the Acropolis (see 
plan, p. 352) 



593. Decline 
and fall of 
Pericles 



382 



Ancient Times 



594. Restora- 
tion, and death 
of Pericles 
(429 B.C.) 




We can understand what this meant 10 the people, if we 
imagine one of our own political leaders of to-day declaring 

himself an infidel.-^ One of 
Pericles' particular friends 
among the Sophists had 
been prosecuted by the 
people for irreligious views 
(§ 563)' He was legally 
condemned for his infidel- 
ity and, in spite of all that 
Pericles could do, was 
obliged to flee from Athens. 
At the same time a popu- 
lar attack on the honesty 
of Pericles' friend Phidias, 
the great cculptor, resulted 
in his being thrown into 
prison, where he died. Fi 
nally, Pericles himself lost 
control, was tried for mis- 
appropriation of funds, 
and fined. 

The absence of his 
steadying hand and power- 
ful leadership was at once 
felt by the people, for 
there was no one to take 
his place, although a swarm 
of small politicians were 
contending for control of 
the Assembly. Realizing 
their helplessness the peo- 
ple soon turned to Pericles again and elected him strategus. 

1 Those who remember Robert G. Ingersoll will recall that he sacrificed a 
political career because of his religious views. 



Fig. 191. Greek 

FROM A 



Youth reading 
Roll 



It will be seen that the young man 
holds the roll so that he rolls up a por- 
tion of it with one hand as he unrolls 
another portion with the other. He 
soon has a roll in each hand, while he 
holds smoothly stretched out between 
the two rolls the exposed portion from 
which he reads a column of writing 
like that which we see photographed 
from the oldest-preserved Greek book 
(roll), in Fig. 223. Such a column 
formed for him a page, but when it was 
read, instead of turning a page as we 
do, he rolled it away to the left side, 
and brought into view a new column 
from the other roll on the right side 



The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 383 

But the great days of his leadership were over. His two 
sons died of the plague. Then he was himself stricken with 
it and died soon after his return to power (429 b.c). Great 
statesman as he was, he had left Athens with a system of 
government which did not provide for the continuation of such 
leadership as he had furnished, and without such leadership 
the Athenian Empire was doomed. 

Men of the prosperous manufacturing class now came to 595. Lack of 
the fore. They possessed neither the high station in life, the death^of 
ability as statesmen, nor the qualities of leadership to win the' ^^"^1^^ 
confidence and respect of the people. Moreover, these new 
leaders were not soldiers and could not command the fleet 
or the army as Pericles had done. The most notable exception 
was Alcibiades, a brilliant young man, a relative of Pericles 
and brought up in his house. The two legal sons of Pericles 
(there was another son by an illegal marriage, § 614) having 
died, Alcibiades, if he had enjoyed the guidance of his foster 
father a few years longer, might have become the savior of 
Athens and of Greece. As it happened, however, this young 
leader was more largely responsible than anyone else for the 
destruction of the Athenian Empire and the downfall of Greece. 

Lacking the steadying hand of a statesman whose well- 596. Unsta- 
formed plans and continuous policy might. furnish a firm and ship ?f die 
guiding influence, the management of Athenian affairs fell into Assembly 
confusion. Wavering and changeableness were rarely interrupted 
by any display of stability, firmness, and wisdom ; the leaders 
drifted from one policy to another, and usually from bad to 
worse. It seemed impossible to regain stable leadership. The 
youthful Aristophanes (§ 659) pictured the rudderless condition 
of the ship of State in one clever comedy after another, in 
which he ridiculed in irresistible satire the pretense to states- 
manship of such " men of the people " as Cleon the tanner. 

A typical example of the ill-considered actions of the As- 597. inci- 
sembly was their treatment of the revolting citizens of Mitylene. M^yiene 
When the men of Mitylene were finally subdued, the Assembly 



384 Ancient Times 

on the Pnyx (Fig. 179) voted that they should all be put to 
death, and a ship departed with these orders. It was with 
great difficulty that a more moderate group in the Assembly 
secured a rehearing of the question and succeeded in inducing 
the people to modify their barbarous action to the condemna- 
tion and execution of the ringleaders only. A second ship then 
overtook the first barely in time to save from death the entire 
body of the citizens of Mitylene. 

598. Cleon In spite of such revolts Athenian naval supremacy continued; 

but as the war dragged on, the payment of army and fleet re- 
duced Athenian funds to a very low state. Cleon the tanner 
was a man of much energy and a good deal of financial ability. 
He succeeded in having an income tax introduced, and later on. 
the tribute of the ^gean cities was raised. But having always 
been a manufacturer, he lacked all military experience. For 
years the operations on both sides were in most cases utterly 
insignificant. This is best seen in Cleon's siege and capture of 
four hundred Spartans on one of the islands on the west coast 
of Greece — a disaster which made a great impression and, in 
view of some other reverses, led the Spartans to sue for peace ! 
Later in an absurdly mismanaged expedition on the northern 
coast of the ^gean, Cleon lost his army of fifteen hundred 
men and his own life. 

599. The first The attack of the allies on Athens did not succeed in break- 
the war'^^and ^^^g ^P ^^^ empire and overthrowing her leadership of the 
*^^^^?^^ ^gean cities. It was the devastation wrought by the plague 
(421 B.C.) which had seriously affected her. Athens and the whole Greek 

world were demoralized and weakened. The contest had in 
it no longer the inspiration of a noble struggle such as the 
Greeks had maintained against Persia. Unprecedented brutality, 
like that at first adopted toward Mitylene, gave the struggle 
a savagery and a lack of respect for the enemy which com- 
pletely obscured all finer issues, if there were any such involved 
in the war. With Cleon gone, Athenian leadership fell into the 
hands of a wealthv and noble citizen named Nicias, a man of 



The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 385 

no ability. When ten years of indecisive warfare had passed, 
Nicias arranged a peace to be kept for fifty years. Each con- 
testant agreed to give up all new conquests and to retain only 
old possessions or subject cities (see map II, p. 344). 

Section 58. Third Peloponnesian War and 
Destruction of the Athenian Empire 

Meantime serious difficulties arose in carrying out the con- 600. Diffi- 
ditions of the peace. One of the northern subject cities of maintaining 
Athens which had gone over to Sparta refused to return to the new peace 
Athenian allegiance. Athens took the questionable ground that 
Sparta should force the unwilling city to obey the terms of 
peace. It was at this juncture that Athens especially needed 
such guidance as a statesman like Pericles could have fur- 
nished. She was obliged to depend upon the feeble leadership 
of Nicias and the energetic but unprincipled Alcibiades. 

Nicias continued to urge a conciliatory attitude toward 601. Alci- 
Sparta, but he failed of election as strategus. On the other onvraragam 
hand, the gifted and reckless Alcibiades, seeing a great oppor- 
tunity for a brilliant career, did all that he could to excite the 
war party^ in Athens. He was elected strategus, and, in spite 
of the fact that troubles at home had forced Sparta into a 
treaty of alliance with Athens, Alcibiades was able to carry 
the Assembly with him. He then involved Athens in an alliance 
with Argos against Sparta. In this way Attica, exhausted with 
plague and ten years of warfare, was enticed into a life-and- 
death struggle which was to prove final. 

Several years of ill-planned military and naval operations 602. Third 
followed the fruitless peace of Nicias. The Spartans did not nesian^War- 
at once respond with hostilities and sent no army into Attica. Sicilian ex- 

^ J pedition 

Alcibiades at length persuaded the Athenians to plan a great 
joint expedition of army and navy against Sicily, where the 
mighty city of Syracuse, founded as a colony of Corinth, was 
leading in the oppression of certain Western cities in alliance 



386 



Ancient Times 



603. Arrest 
of Alcibiades 
and his flight 
to Sparta 



with Athens. The Athenians placed Alcibiades and Nicias 
in command of the expedition. 

Just as the fleet was about to sail, certain sacred images in 
Athens were impiously mutilated, and the deed was attributed 
to Alcibiades. In spite of his demand for an immediate trial, 
the Athenians postponed the case until his return from Sicily. 



i 




Athenian Walls Finished. .. 
Athenian Walls Unfinished.. 
Syracusan Wall 



Plan of the Siege of Syracuse 

When the fleet reached Italy, however, the Athenian people, 
with their usual inability to follow any consistent plan and also 
desiring to take Alcibiades at a great disadvantage, suddenly 
recalled him for trial. This procedure not only deprived the 
expedition of its only able leader but also gave Alcibiades an 
opportunity to desert to the Spartans, which he promptly did. 
His advice to the Spartans now proved fatal to the Athenians. 



The Struggle between AtJiens and Sparta 387 

The appearance of the huge Athenian fleet off their coast 604. incom- 
struck dismay into the hearts of the Syracusans, but Nicias N^das^ ° 
entirely failed to see the importance of immediate attack before 
the Syracusans could recover and make preparations for the 
defense of their city. He wasted the early days of the cam- 
paign in ill-planned maneuvers, only winning a barren victory 
over the Syracusan land forces. When Nicias was finally in- 
duced by the second general in command to begin the siege 
of the city, courage had returned to the Syracusans, and their 
defense was well organized. 

The Athenians now built a siege wall behind Syracuse nearly 605. Athe- 
across the point of land on which the city was situated, in order urTsuccefsful 
to cut it entirely off from the outside world. The spirit of the 
Syracusans was much depressed, and surrender seemed not far 
off. Just at this point Gylippus, a Spartan leader and his troops, 
sent by the advice of Alcibiades, succeeded in passing the Athe- 
nian lines and gained entrance to the city. The courage of the 
Syracusans was at once restored. The Athenians were thrown 
upon the defensive. Meantime the Syracusans had also organ- 
ized a fleet. The Athenian fleet had entered the harbor, and 
in these narrow quarters they were unable to maneuver or to 
take advantage of their superior seamanship. After some 
Athenian success at first, the fleet of Syracuse was victorious. 

There was now no prospect of the capture of the city, and 606. Re- 
Nicias would have withdrawn, but the leaders at home would Athenians 
not allow it. In spite of renewed Spartan invasion, the blinded repulsed 
democratic leaders sent out another fleet and more land forces 
to reinforce Nicias. No Greek state had ever mustered such 
power and sent it far across the waters. All Greece watched 
the spectacle with amazen\ent. A night assault by the rein- 
forced Athenians failed with large losses, and the position of 
the whole expedition at once became a dangerous one. 

With disaster staring them in the face there was nothing for 
the Athenians to do but withdraw. But just at this point, an 
eclipse of the moon occurred, and the superstitious Nicias 



388 



Ancient Times 



607. Capture 
of Athenian 
fleet and 
army before 
Syracuse 
(413 B.C.) 



insisted on waiting for another more favorable moon. This 
month's delay was fatal to the Athenians. The Syracusans 
blockaded the channel to the sea and completely shut up the 
Athenian fleet within the harbor, so that an attempt to break 
through and escape disastrously failed. The desperate Athenian 




Fig. 192. Stone Quarries of Syracuse in which the Athe- 
nians WERE Imprisoned 

We look across the deep quarry and the Small Harbor to the ancient 
island of Ortygia (see map, p. 386). It is now a cape, occupied by the 
modern city of which we can see the buildings. The quarries are over- 
grown with ivy and masked with beautiful green foliage. Here the seven 
thousand Athenians captured by the Syracusans (§ 607) were imprisoned 
without sufficient water and provisions, and here most of them died 

army, abandoning sick and wounded, too late endeavored to. 
escape into the interior, but was overtaken and forced to sur- 
render. The Syracusans treated the captured Athenians with 
savage barbarity. After executing the commanding generals, 
they took the prisoners, seven thousand in number, and sold 
them into slavery or threw them into the stone quarries of the 
city (Fig. 192), where most of them miserably perished. Thus 



The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 389 

the Athenian expedition was completely destroyed (413 B.C.). 
This disaster, together with the earlier ravages of the plague, 
brought Athens near the end of her resources. 

Heretofore Sparta had stood more or less aloof, seemingly 608. Spartan 
unwilling to break the peace of Nicias, and had not invaded iukr" *" 
Attica. But now seeing the unprotected condition of Athens, 
after the dispatch of the Sicilian expedition, Sparta again in- 
vaded Attica and, on the advice of Alcibiades, occupied the town 
of Decelea,^ almost within sight of Athens. Here the Spartans 
established a permanent fort held by a strong garrison, and thus 
placed Athens in a state of perpetual siege. All agriculture 
ceased, and the Athenians lived on imported grain. The people 
now understood the folly of having sent away on a distant ex- 
pedition the ships and the men that should have been kept at 
home to repel the attacks of a powerful and still uncrippled foe. 

After these disasters the Athenian Empire began to show 609. internal 
signs of breaking up. The failure of the democracy in the the\tlfenian 
management of the war enabled the nobles to denounce popu- Empire 
lar rule as unsuccessful. The nobles regained power for a time; 
violence and bloodshed within were added to the dangerous 
assaults of the enemy from without. The finances were in a 
desperate condition. The tribute, already raised to the breaking 
point, was abolished and a customs duty of five per cent was 
levied on all goods exported or imported. The plan was a suc- 
cess and brought in a larger income than the tribute. But the 
measure did not unite nor quiet the discontented communities 
of which the Empire was made up. One after another they fell 
away. Spartan warships sailed about in the ^gean, aiding the 
rebels, who had of course dared to revolt only on promise of 
such assistance from Sparta. 

To add to the Athenian distress, the powerful Persian satrap 610. Persia 
in western Asia Minor was supporting the Spartan fleet ponnes1ans°* 
with money. Indeed, both Athens and Sparta had long been ^^f"^^ 



1 On this account the war with Sparta which now followed, lasting nine years 
(fr.om 413 to 404 B.C.), is often called the " Decelean War " (see map, p. 352). 



390 



Ancient Times 



6ii. Alcibia- 
des recovers 
command of 
the Athe- 
nian fleet 
(411 B.C.) 



612. Resto- 
ration of 
Alcibiades 
(407 B.C.) 



613. Fall and 
death of 
Alcibiades 



negotiating with Persia for aid, and Sparta had recognized Per- 
sian rule over the Greek cities of Asia. The Greek islands 
and the cities of Asia Minor which had once united in the 
Delian League with Athens to throw off Persian rule were now 
combining with Sparta and Persia against Athens. Thus the 
former union of the Greeks in a heroic struggle against the 
Asiatic enemy had given way to a disgraceful scramble for 
Persian support and favor. 

Meantime Alcibiades, under the protection of the Persian 
satrap, had himself encouraged the revolters against Athens, 
hoping that her distress would finally oblige her to recall him 
and seek his aid. He was not disappointed. The small fleet 
which the Athenians were still able to put into the fight called 
upon Alcibiades for help, and finally put itself under his com- 
mand, without any authorization from Athens. In several con- 
flicts, chiefly through the skill of Alcibiades, the Peloponnesian 
fleet was finally completely destroyed, and Athens regained the 
command of the sea. 

Sparta now made offers of peace, but Alcibiades skillfully 
used the war sentiment in the fleet against their acceptance, 
and the democratic leaders in power at Athens also refused to 
make peace. Alcibiades was then (407 B.C.) elected strategus 
and legally gained command of the fleet which he had already- 
been leading for four years. At the head of a triumphant pro- 
cession he entered Athens again for the first time since he had 
left it for Sicily eight years before. He was solemnly purified 
from the religious curse which rested upon him , and his for- 
tune, which had been confiscated, was returned to him. 

It now needed only the abilities of such a leader as Alcibi- 
ades to accomplish the union of the distracted Greek states, 
and the foundation of a great Greek nation. At this supreme 
moment, however, Alcibiades lacked the courage to seize the 
government, and the opportunity never returned again. When 
he put to sea again a slight defeat, inflicted on a part of his 
fleet when he was not present, cost him the favor of the fickle 



The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 391 

Athenians. When they failed to reelect him strategus he retired 
to a castle which he had kept in readiness on the Hellespont. 
He never saw his native land again and died in exile, the victim 
of a Persian dagger. 

The Athenians had now lost their ablest leader again, but 614. Athe- 
they continued the war on the sea as best they could. They ofArginusLi 
won another important victory over a new Peloponnesian fleet of^^he^^f^JJ^. 
on the coast of Asia Minor by the little islands of Arginusae. manders 

(406 B.C.) 

As the battle ended a storm arose which prevented the com- 
manders from saving the Athenian survivors clinging to the 
wreckage. For this accident the Athenian commanders were 
accused of criminal neglect before the Assembly and con- 
demned to death. In spite of all that could be done, six of the 
eight naval commanders were executed, including the young 
Pericles, a son of the great statesman. The other two com- 
manders had been wise enough to flee from such justice as 
they might expect at the hands of the Athenian democracy. 

Athens now suffered worse than ever before for lack of 615. Capture 
competent commanders. The fleet numbering about one hun- ^ian fleet at 
dred and eighty triremes was placed in command of a group ^J;5 ^^"^^ °^. 

^ J ^ , Agospotami 

of officers, each of whom was to lead for a day at a time. The (405 ^.c.) 
democratic leaders who had made this absurd arrangement 
watched the fleet sail out to continue a war which they them- 
selves were prolonging by again refusing Spartan proffers of 
peace. For several days in succession the Athenians sailed out 
from their station near the river called ^gospotami on the 
Hellespont, and offered battle to the Peloponnesian fleet lying 
in a neighboring harbor. But the Peloponnesians refused 
battle. On their return from these maneuvers each day, the 
Athenians left their ships along the beach and themselves went 
ashore. Alcibiades from his neighboring castle, where he still 
was, came down and pointed out to the Athenian commanders 
the great danger they ran in leaving the fleet in this condition 
so near the enemy. His advice received no attention. The 
able Spartan, Lysander, the commander of the Peloponnesian 



392 



Ancient Times 



6i6. Sur- 
render of 
Athens and 
fall of the 
Athenian 
Empire 
(404 B.C.) 



fleet, seeing this daily procedure, waited until the Athenians had 
gone ashore and left their ships as usual. Then, sailing over, 
he surprised and captured practically the whole Athenian fleet. 
At last, twenty-seven years after Pericles had provoked the 
war with Sparta, the resources of Athens were exhausted. Not 
a man slept on the night when the terrible news of final ruin 
reached Athens. It was soon confirmed by the appearance of 
Lysander's fle.et blockading the Piraeus. The grain ships from 
the Black Sea could no longer reach the port of Athens. The 
Spartan king pitched his camp in the grove of the Academy 
(§ 558) and called on the city to surrender. For some months 
the stubborn democratic leaders refused to accept terms of peace 
which meant the complete destruction of Athenian power. But 
the pinch of hunger finally convinced the Assembly, and the 
city surrendered. The Long Walls and the fortifications of the 
Piraeus were torn down, the remnant of the fleet was handed' 
over to Sparta, all foreign possessions were given up, and 
Athens was forced to enter the Spartan League. These hard 
conditions saved the city from the complete destruction de- 
manded by Corinth. Thus the century which had begun so 
gloriously for Athens with the repulse of Persia, the century 
which under the leadership of such men as Themistocles and 
Pericles had seen her rise to supremacy in all that was best 
and noblest in Greek life, closed with the annihilation of the 
Athenian Empire (404 B.C.). 



QUESTIONS 

Section 57. How did Athens treat the subject states of her 
Empire? What was now her policy regarding citizenship.? regard- 
ing lawsuits in the subject states.'* How did these states now feel 
toward Athens? How did the states outside the Athenian Empire 
feel? What was the result? Who were the enemies of Athens in 
this war? What were her resources? 

What was Pericles' plan of campaign ? W^hat disaster overtook 
Athens? How did this affect the fortunes of Pericles? By what 



The Struggle between Athens and Sparta 393 

associations had he displeased the people? What was the result? 
What young leader now came forward? What kind of leadership 
did the Assembly now furnish? Give an example. What business 
man now tried to lead the nation? How did he succeed? Were 
the military operations of the war on a large scale? What was the 
result of ten years' war ? Who arranged the peace ? When ? 

Section 58, Who was chiefly responsible for the reopening of 
the war ? What great expedition did the Athenians plan ? Who were 
the commanders ? What prevented Alcibiades from going ? Tell the 
story of the expedition and its end. What did Sparta now do? 
What was now the internal condition of the Athenian Empire? 
What part did Persia play in the war? What can you state of the 
restoration of Alcibiades to office? What was the result? How did 
the Athenians treat their naval commanders? What was the re- 
sult? What was the situation of Athens after the loss of her fleet? 
W^hat conditions did Sparta make ? Contrast the beginning and the 
end of the fifth century in Athenian history. 

Note. The tailpiece below shows us the theater of Epidaurus, which is un- 
usually instructive because it is the best preserved of the Greek theaters. 
Although it was built late in the fourth century B.C., we see that the orchestra 
circle is still complete and has not been cut into by later stage arrangements 
behind it as at Athens (Fig. 189). 




-^ - ^ ^^ \^ m, 












k -^ 



yfe r 







^^»* 



v-S?^^, 




^^.v^. > > 




CHAPTER XVII 

THE FINAL CONFLICTS AMONG THE GREEK STATES 

Section 59. Spartan Leadership and the Decline 
OF Democracy 



617. Unfit- 
ness of Sparta 
for leadership 
of the Greeks 



The long struggle of Athens for the political leadership of 
the Greek world had ignominiously failed. It now remained 
to be seen whether her victorious rival, Sparta, was any better 
suited to undertake such leadership. No nation which devotes 
itself exclusively to the development of military power, as 
Sparta had done, is fitted to control successfully the affairs of 
its neighbors. Military garrisons commanded by Spartan offi- 
cers were now placed in many of the Greek cities, and Spartan 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the lovely Porch of the Maidens built to 
adorn the temple on the Acropolis known as the Erechtheum (Fin Fig. 183). This 
was a very ancient sanctuary of Athena, supposed to have gained its name because 
it was originally a shrine in the castle of the prehistoric king Erechtheus on the 
Acropolis. It was believed to stand on the spot where Athena overcame Poseidon 
in her battle with him for the possession of Attica, and here was the mark of the 
Sea-god's trident which he struck into the earth. Here also grew the original olive 
tree which Athena summoned from the earth as a gift to the Athenians (§ 654). 
The building was erected during the last Peloponnesian war, in spite of the finan- 
cial distress of Athens at that time. It is one of the most beautiful architectural 
works left us by the Greeks. 

394 



The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 395 

control was maintained in a much more offensive form than 
was the old tyranny of Athens. 

By such violent means Sparta was able to repress the democ- 618. Sti^iggle 
racies which had everywhere been hostile to her. In each city ^nd d?^^ ^ 
the Spartans established and supported by military force the "^ocracy 
rule of a small group of men from the noble or upper class. 
Such rule of a small group was called oligarchy, a Greek 
term meaning " rule of a few." The oligarchs were guilty of 
the worst excesses, murdering and banishing their political 
opponents and confiscating their fortunes. When the people 
regained power, they retaliated in the same way and drove the 
oligarchs from the city. As this kind of conflict went on, both 
parties banished so many that a large number of the leading 
Athenian citizens constantly lived in exile. From their foreign 
homes they plotted against their banishers and formed a 
constant danger from abroad. 

In spite of the failure of oligarchy, thoughtful men every- 619. Dis- 
where regarded popular rule also as an open failure. The splen- weaknesses 
did achievements of citizenship under Pericles (Chapter XV) of democracy 
must not blind us to the weaknesses of Athenian democracy. 
Some of these we have already seen in following the course 
of the Pelpponnesian Wars ; but the same weaknesses were 
evident in the people's control of the internal affairs of Athens. 
Let us examine some of the leading matters in which popular 
control had failed and continued to fail. 

Nowhere were the mistakes of democracy more evident than 620. Corrup- 
in the Athenian law courts. The payment of the large citizen- prejudice of 
juries (§ 538) often exhausted the treasury. When there was ^klz^n-^uSs'' 
no money in the treasury with which to pay the juries, the jury- 
men, who preferred such service to hard work, found it very 
easy to fill the treasury again by fining any accused citizen 
brought before them, whether he was guilty or innocent. More 
than one lawyer of the time urged the court to confiscate the 
fortune of an accused citizen, in order that the jurymen to whom 
the lawyer was talking might thus receive their pay. It became 



396 



Ancient Times 



621. Evils of 
one-sided 
class rule 



622. Unwise 
financial pol- 
icy of the 
democracy 



623. Expen- 
sive means of 
collecting 
taxes 



a profitable trade to bring accusations and suits against wealthy 
men on all sorts of trumped-up charges. A man thus threat- 
ened usually preferred to buy off his accusers, in order to avoid 
going before five hundred poor and ignorant jurors. 

In the days of Solon we remember that the rule of the upper 
classes over the lower was so oppressive that it almost resulted 
in the destruction of the State (§ 473). In the course of less 
than two hundred years the lower classes had gained complete 
control, and their rule, as we have just seen (§ 620), became so 
corruptly oppressive toward the upper classes that the final situ- 
ation was again one-sided class rule, as bad as any that Athens 
had ever seen. To Athenian misfortunes in foreign wars were 
thus added the constant violence of weakening inner struggles 
between classes. 

Another weakness of popular rule was its unwise financial 
policy, which continually exhausted the treasury of Athens. Her 
empty treasury was due to a number of causes, chiefly three. 
First, the payment of large numbers of citizens for services to 
the State, especially the thousands of citizen-jurors ; second, the 
payment to all citizens of " show-money " (§ 579), a heavy drain 
on the treasury ; and third, the long-cgntinued expenses and 
losses of war (§ 539). 

To these we might add the expensive means of collecting 
taxes employed by both parties. Unlike the great oriental gov- 
ernments we have studied (Fig. 40), no Greek state possessed 
any officials to undertake the task of collecting taxes. It there- 
fore sold its tax claims to the highest bidder, who then had the 
right to collect the taxes. In order to secure the large sums 
necessary for making such bids, a number of men of money 
would form themselves into a company. These companies 
by secretly combining gained a monopoly in the business of tax 
collecting. Their bid was always far less than the amount of 
the tax claims to be collected. Thus the people paid far more 
taxes than the State received from the collectors, into whose 
pockets the difference went. Consequently, the rate of taxation 



The Fifial Conflicts among the Greek States 397 

at Athens was now high, being at least from one to two per 
cent of a man's fortune and sometimes much higher. 

The Athenians had early begun to use the treasure which 624. Exhaus- 
had accumulated in the temple of Athena. The obligation to temple treas- 
pay back this borrowed treasure was engraved upon a stone ruptcy^oTihe 
tablet set up on the Acropolis. To this day the surviving frag- Greek states 
ments of this broken stone bear witness to the unpaid debt to 
Athena and the bankruptcy of Athens. After the long struggle 
between Athens and Sparta was over, all the Greek states 
were practically bankrupt. An admiral or a general of this time 
often found himself facing the enemy without the money to pay 
his forces or to feed them. At the same time, if he failed in 
his campaign he would be punished for his failure by the democ- 
racy at home. There were times when the Athenian courts 
ceased to hold any sessions, for lack of funds to pay the citizen- 
juries, and a man with an important lawsuit on his hands could 
not g^l it tried. 

Under these circumstances the Mediterranean states for the 625. Begin- 
first time began to study the methods and theory of raising financial 
money for government expenses. A beginning was thus made in ^^^"J^^^"^ 
the science of national finances and political economy. Neverthe- economy 
less, the method of collection of the taxes continued to be that 
of '' farming " out the undertaking to the highest bidder. In 
this matter the Orient still remained far in advance of the north- 
ern Mediterranean states (§-74). From now on the finances of 
a nation became more and more a matter of special training, 
and it became more difficult for the average citizen without 
experience to manage the financial offices of the government. 

Notwithstanding the great losses in property and in men 626. Begin- 
during the long Peloponnesian Wars, Athens at length began decUne of^ 
to recover herself. The farms of Attica had been laid waste so fa™i"g> ^nd 

appearance 

often by the Spartan armies that agriculture never wholly re- of large land- 

. owners 

covered its former prosperity. Ihere was a tendency among 
farmers to sell their land and to undertake some form of manu- 
facturing in the city. This was a natural thing to do, for the 



398 



Ancient Times 



627. Growth 
of manufac- 
turing and 
rise of banks 



628. Rise of 
prices ; grow- 
ing luxury 



industries of Athens offered attractive opportunities to make a 
fortune. At the same time, men who had already gained wealth 
in manufactures bought one farm after another. This was a 
process which would finally concentrate the lands of Attica in 
the hands of a few large city landlords who were not farmers, 
but worked their great estates, each made up of many farms, 
with slaves under superintendents. The landowning farmers 
who worked their own lands and lived on them tended to 
disappear. In their place the great estates common in neigh- 
boring Asia Minor under the Persians (§ 269) were also 
appearing among the Greeks. 

Athens was still the leading business center and the greatest 
city in the Mediterranean world. While manufacturing business 
was not often conducted by companies, groups of wealthy men, 
as we have seen, united to furnish the large sums necessary to 
bid for the contract to collect the taxes. Such combinations 
formed one of the evils of Athenian business life, as they have 
sometimes done in our own time. Other men combined their 
capital to form the first banks. The Greeks no longer left their 
accumulated money in a temple treasury-, for safe-keeping, but 
gave it to such a bank that it might be loaned out, used in 
business, and earn interest. Athens thus became the financial 
center of the ancient world, as New York and London are to- 
day, and her bankers became the proverbially wealthy men of 
the time. The most successful among them was Pasion, a 
former slave, who had been able to purchase his liberty because 
of his great business ability. 

As the banking system resulted in keeping more money in 
circulation the old increase in prices (§ 537) went on, and the 
expenses for government were consequently higher ; but the 
democracy continued to pay itself vast sums for jury service 
and show-money. There was a freer use of money in private 
life among the well-to-do classes. The houses of such people 
began to display rooms with painted wall decorations and 
adorned with rugs and hangings. An orator of the time 



The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 399 

condemns such luxurious houses, which he says were unknown 
in the days of Miltiades and the Persian War, just as some 
criticize our own modern fine houses and contrast them with 
the simplicity of George Washington and Revolutionary days. 

Men were now becoming more and more interested in their 629. Rise of 
own careers, and they were no longer so devoted to the State slon?fsoWier 
as formerly. This was especially true in the matter of military ^^ a result of 
service. Except in Sparta, a Greek had heretofore left his occu- nesian Wars 
pation for a brief space to bear arms for a single short cam- 
paign, and then returned to his occupation. Such men made 
up a citizen militia, no more devoted to arms than our own 
modern militia. But the long Peloponnesian Wars had kept 
large numbers of Greeks so long under arms that many of 
them permanently adopted military life and became professional 
soldiers, serving for pay wherever they could find opportunity. 
Such soldiers serving a foreign state for pay are called " mer- 
cenaries." There were few unoccupied lands to which a young 
Greek could migrate as in the colonizing age ; and Persia blocked 
all such enterprises in the East. The Greek youths who could 
find no opportunities at home were therefore enlisting as soldiers 
in Egypt, in Asia Minor, and in Persia, and the best young blood 
of Greece was being spent to strengthen foreign states instead 
of building up the power of the Greeks. 

During the Peloponnesian Wars military leadership had also 630. Rise of 
become a profession. It was no longer possible for a citizen to m^^fta^^^^"^^ 
leave private life and casually assume command of an army or leaders; 

n A 1 1111 r r . Xenophon 

a fleet. Athens produced a whole group of professional military and the Ten 

leaders whose romantic exploits made them famous throughout 

the ancient world. The most talented among these was the 

Athenian, Xenophon. About 400 e.g. he took service in Asia 

Minor with Cyrus, a young Persian prince, who was planning 

to overthrow his brother, the Persian king. With ten thousand 

Greek mercenaries Cyrus marched entirely across Asia Minor 

to the Euphrates, and down the river almost to Babylon. Here 

the Greeks defeated the army of the Persian king ; but Cyrus 



400 



Ancient Times 



631. Rise 
of military 
science ; 
" Anabasis " 
and other 
military- 
treatises 



632. Greeks 
learn use of 
siege machin- 
ery and larger 
warships 



was killed, and the Greeks were therefore obliged to retreat. 
Xenophon led them up the Tigris past the ruins of Nineveh 
(Fig. 203), and after months of fighting in dangerous moun- 
tain passes, suffering from cold and hunger, the survivors 
struggled on until they reached the Black Sea and finally gained 
Byzantium in safety. 

Of this extraordinary raid into the Persian Empire Xenophon 
has left a modest account called the "Anabasis" ("up-going"), 
one of the great books which have descended to us from ancient 
times. He explains the military operations involved, and the 
book thus became one of the treatises on military science which 
now began to appear. Such leaders were discussing the theory 
of operations in the field, methods of strategy, and the best 
kinds of weapons. Even Euripides, in his tragedy of Hercules, 
pictured the comparative effectiveness of bow and spear. 
Xenophon tells of an officer of Cyrus who divided his men into 
two parties and armed one party with clods and the other with 
clubs. After the two parties had fought it out, all agreed that 
the club in the hand at close quarters was more eff^ective than 
missiles (that is, the clods) hurled from a distance. This was 
to demonstrate the effectiveness of the spear at close quarters 
over the arrows o-f distant archers. 

We recall that in Pericles^ time the Spartans made no 
attempt to attack the walls of Athens, because the Greeks at 
that time knew nothing about methods of attacking fortifica- 
tions. The Phoenician Carthaginians, however, had carried the 
Assyrian siege devices (p. 140) to the west, where the west- 
ern Greeks had now learned to use them in Sicily. From Sicily 
the use of battering-rams, movable towers, and the like was car- 
ried to Greece itself, and against attack with such equipment 
Athens would no longer have been safe. The Mediterranean, 
which had so long ago received the arts of peace from the 
Orient, was now also learning to use war machinery from the 
same source. At the same time larger warships were con- 
structed, some having as many as five banks of oars ; and the 



TJie Final Conflicts among the Greek States 40 1 

old triremes with three banks could no longer stand against such 
powerful ships. All such equipment made war more expensive 
than before. 

The remarkable feat of Xenophon's Ten Thousand (§ 630) 633. War 
finally stirred Spartan ambition to undertake conquest in Persian sparfa and 
territory in Asia Minor. The Spartans, therefore, hired the sur- Persia ; and 

-^ r J 5 ^Yi& Corin- 

viving two thirds of the Ten Thousand, but the rule of Sparta thianWar 
had caused such dissatisfaction that her victories in Asia Minor ^^^^~^ 7^-c.) 
were offset by revolts in Greece. In one of these Lysander 
was killed. The outcome of these rebellions was a league of 
Athens and Thebes against Sparta. Even Corinth, the old-time 
enemy of Athens, joined this league, and Argos also came in. 
Behind this combination was Persia, whose agents had brought 
it about in order to weaken Sparta. It was one of the ironies 
of the whole deplorable situation that a fleet of Athens made 
common cause with the Persians and helped to fasten Persian 
despotism on the Greek cities of Asia. The Greeks had learned 
nothing by their long and unhappy experience of fruitless fight- 
ing, and thus began an eight years' struggle, called the Corinthian 
War. The Athenians had been able to rebuild a fleet, with which 
they now destroyed the fleet of Sparta. They were then in a 
position to erect the Long Walls again. 

At length the Persians began to fear lest Athens should again 634. King's 
be strong enough to endanger Persian control in Asia Minor, (^g; b.c.) 
The Spartans, therefore, found it easy to arrange a peace with 
Persia. The Greek states fighting Sparta were equally willing 
to come to terms, and when peace was at last established in 
Greece, it was under the humiliating terms of a treaty accepted 
by Hellas at the hands of the Persian king. It is known as the 
King's Peace (387 B.C.). It did not end the leadership of Sparta 
over the Greek states, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor were 
shamefully abandoned to Persia. The period following the 
King's Peace brought only added discontent with Sparta's illegal 
and tyrannical control, and no satisfactory solution of the prob- 
lem of the relations of the Greek states among themselves. 



402 



Ancient Times 



Section 6o. The Fall of Sparta and the 
Leadership of Thebes 



635. Thebes 

and a new 

Athenian 

league 

against 

Sparta 

(378 B.C.) 



636. Peace 
congress of 
the Greek 
states at 
Sparta 



637. Spartan 

military 

tactics 



For twenty-five years since the last Peloponnesian war, the 
Spartans had been endeavoring to maintain control of the 
Greek world. Men like Lysander had been unable to trans- 
form the rigid Spartan system into a government which should 
sympathetically include and direct the activities of the whole 
Greek world. The Spartans were therefore more hated than 
Athens had ever been. A group of fearless and patriotic 
citizens at Thebes succeeded in slaying the oligarchs, the 
Spartan garrison surrendered and a democracy was set up, 
which gained the leadership of all Boeotia. At the same time 
Athens, which on the whole had been greatly strengthened by 
the terms of the King's Peace, was able to begin the formation 
of a second naval alliance like the original league from which 
the Athenian Empire had sprung. The combination included 
Thebes and so many of the other Greek cities that Sparta was 
greatly disturbed. The Spartans met disaster on land, and 
when this was followed by the defeat of their fleet by Athens, 
they were ready for peace. 

To arrange this peace all the Greek states met at Sparta, 
and such meetings gave them experience in the united manage- 
ment of their common affairs for the welfare of all Hellas. 
Spartan leadership might have held the Greek states together, 
and by giving them all a voice in the control of Hellas, Sparta 
might still have finally united the Greeks into a great nation. 
But this was not to be. When the conditions of peace were 
all agreed upon, the Spartans refused to allow Thebes to speak 
for the whole of Boeotia. The Thebans refused to enter the 
compact on any other terms, and the peace was concluded with- 
out them. This left Sparta and Thebes still in a state of war. 

All Greece now expected to see the Thebans crushed by the 
heavy Spartan phalanx, which had so long proved irresistible. 
The Spartan plan of battle hitherto followed by aU commanders 



The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 403 

consisted in making the phalanx of the right wing very heavy 
and massive, by arraying it many warriors deep. The custom- 
ary depth was eight men. The onset of a well-drilled phalanx 
produced a pressure so terrible that the opposing lines gave 
way and the unbroken phalanx pushed through. The effect 
was that of a heavy mass play in American football, only we 
must picture the phalanx as carrying out the operation on a 
large scale. Having broken through at the first onset, the 



Theban Right 



Theban Center 



TJiebanLeft 




SpartanRight 

Plan of the Battle of Leuctra (371 b.c.) 






victorious phalanx could then cut down singly the scattered 
soldiers who had given way before them. 

The Spartans had, as it were, but one " play " in their list ; 638. New 
but they were accustomed to see it automatically successful. Epaminon- 
The Theban commander, a gifted and patriotic citizen named i^^'ij^^ 
Epaminondas, consequently knew in advance the only '' play " 
which the Spartans had ever used. He therefore devised an 
altogether novel arrangement of his troops, such that it would 
meet and more than offset the fearful pressure of the heavy 
Spartan right. He drew up his line so that it was not parallel 
with that of the Spartans, his right wing being much further 
from the Spartan line than his left. At the same time he 
massed his troops on his left wing, which he made fifty shields 



404 



Ancient Times 



639. Battle 
of Leuctra 
and fall of 
Sparta 
(371 B.C.) 



640. Leader- 
ship and 
speedy 
collapse 
of Thebes 



641. Final 
political pros- 
tration of 
the whole 
Greek world 



642. Prog- 
ress of the 
Greeks in the 
higher life 



deep. This great mass was to meet the shock of the heavy 
Spartan right wing (see plan, p. 403). 

The battle took place at Leuctra, in southern Boeotia (see 
map, p. 352). As the lines moved into action the battle did not 
begin along the whole front at once ; but the massive Theban 
left wing, being furthest advanced, met the Spartan line first and 
was at first engaged alone. Its onset proved so heavy that the 
Spartan right opposing it was soon crushed, and the rest of 
the Spartan line also gave way as the Theban center and right 
came into action. Over half of the Spartans engaged were 
slain and with them their king. The long-invincible Spartan 
army was at last defeated, and the charm of Spartan prestige 
was finally broken. After more than thirty years of leadership 
(since 404 B.C.) Spartan power was ended (371 B.C.) 

The two rival leaders of the Greeks, Athens and Sparta, had 
now both failed in the effort to weld the Greek states together 
as a nation. A third Greek state was now victorious on land, 
and it remained to be seen whether Thebes could accomplish 
what Athens and Sparta had failed in doing. Under Epami- 
nondas' leadership Thebes likewise created "a navy, and having 
greatly weakened Athens at sea, Thebes gained the leadership 
of Greece. But it was a supremacy based upon the genius of 
a single man, and when Epaminondas fell in a final battle with 
Sparta at Mantinea (362 B.C.), the power of Thebes by land 
and sea collapsed. 

Thus the only powerful Greek states, which might have 
developed a federation of the Hellenic world, having crushed 
each other, Hellas was ready to fall helplessly before a con- 
queror from the outside. The Greek world, whose civilization 
was everywhere supreme, was politically prostrate and helpless. 

It was less than two generations since the death of Pericles, 
and there were still old men living who had seen him in their 
childhood days. We have been following the political fortunes 
of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes during these two generations, 
but our narrative has been very far from telling the whole 



The Final Conflicts among the Greek States 405 

stoiy. For in spite of their political decline during the two 
generations since Pericles, the Greeks, and especially the Athe- 
nians, had been achieving things in their higher life, in art, 
architecture, literature, and thought, which made this period per- 
haps the greatest in the history of man. To these achievements 
since the death of Pericles we must now turn back. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 59. Why was Sparta unfitted to control the Greek 
states ? What was her method of control ? What is an oligarchy ? 
How did it succeed ? Had democracy succeeded any better ? Describe 
the abuses practiced by the citizen-juries. Was class rule by the poor 
any better than class rule by the rich? What practices kept the 
Athenian treasury empty ? What was the Athenian method of collect- 
ing taxes? Why was it unprofitable for the State? Describe the 
effects of lack of money on the work of government. What did the 
Greeks do in order to understand the national finances ? 

What was happening to small farm owners ? Discuss business and 
finance at this time. How had the long Peloponnesian Wars affected 
the citizen soldiers of Greece ? How was military leadership develop- 
ing ? Tell the story of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. How has 
this story come down to us ? What science was now arising ? Where 
did the Greeks learn the use of siege machinery ? What did the raid 
of the Ten Thousand lead Sparta to do? Sketch the Corinthian 
War. What was the result ? 

Section 60. What combination was formed to overthrow the 
leadership of Sparta ? What did the Thebans do ? What happened 
at the peace conference ? In the resulting war between Sparta and 
Thebes what result was to be anticipated? Describe Spartan military 
tactics. How did Epaminondas plan to meet the Spartan tactics? 
Where and when did the armies meet ? What was the result ? How 
did Thebes succeed in leading the Greek states ? In what condition 
politically was the whole Greek world ? 




CHAPTER XVIII 

THE HIGHER LIFE OF THE GREEKS FROM THE DEATH OF 
PERICLES TO THE FALL OF THE GREEK STATES 

Section 6i. Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting 



643. Decline The long wars and the demands of the democracy (§ 622) 
port of art and had swallowcd up the wealth of Athens ; the great and splendid 
architecture v^orks of the Age of Pericles were therefore no longer possible. 
At the same time Athens was obliged to rebuild her fortifications, 
erect war arsenals, and build sheds for her battleships. The old 
temporary wooden seats of the theater (§ 579) were replaced 
by a permanent structure of stone (Fig. 189). Here and there 
other Greek cities also were building durable stone theaters 

Note. The above headpiece is a restoration by Adler of the famous tomb of 
King Mausolus of Caria, called after him the Mausoleum (§ 646). We now call 
any splendid tomb a mausoleum, thus preserving the old Hittite name of this 
king. It was when first built (in the middle of the fourth century B.C.) the most 
magnificent tomb on the north side of the Mediterranean, and it was because of 
its widespread fame that its name was preserved. Upon a high rectangular base 
a fine Ionic colonnade supported a step pyramid, upon which, crowning the 
whole monument, rose a splendid four-horse chariot bearing the king and queen. 
The work was designed and built by the architect and sculptor Pythius, and 
adorned with sculpture by Scopas and other Athenian sculptors whom the queen 
(§ 646) called to Caria for the purpose. 

406 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 



407 



like that at Athens. Permanent stadiums for races were like- 
wise erected by some communities (Fig. 212, 0. The mainte- 
nance of art and architecture in this age was, however, largely 
in the hands of individual artists, not 
supported by the State but produc- 
ing works of art for private buyers. 

Nevertheless, the Erechtheum {F 
in Fig. 183), one of the most beautiful 
buildings ever erected, a temple which 
had been begun before Pericles' death, 
was continued and, for the most part, 
completed during the unhappy days 
of the last Peloponnesian war. It 
was built in the Ionic style (p. 340), 
adorned with colonnades of wonder- 
ful refinement and beauty, and at one 
corner, over the grave of the legend- 
ary king Cecrops, the architects raised 
an exquisite porch, with its roof sup- 
ported by lovely marble figures of 
Athenian maidens, watching over 
the burial place of the ancient king 
(headpiece, p. 394). 

Egyptian architects, as we remem- 
ber, had long before crowned their 
columns with a capital representing 
growing flowers or palm-tree tops 
(Fig. 56). The Greek architects 
now profited by this hint (see head- 
piece and note, p. 453). Perceiving 
the great beauty of their own 
acanthus plant, they now designed a 
capital adorned with a double row 
of acanthus leaves (Fig. 193). This 
new capital was richer and more 




644. The 
Erechtheum 
on the 
Athenian 
AcropoHs 



Fig. 193. A Corin- 
thian Capital 

The shaft of this column 
has been cut out in the draw- 
ing between the base and 
the capital to save space. 
Like the capitals of Egypt 
(§ 92), this one represents 
a plant, the leaves of the 
acanthus, alternating in two 
rows around the capital and 
crowned by volutes rising 
to the four corners of a 
flat block upon which the 
supported stone above 
rests. The effect of this 
capital is peculiarly rich 
and ornate (§ 645) 



645. Rise of 
the Corin- 
thian style of 
architecture 



4o8 



Ancient Times 



646. The 

Mausoleum 
in Asia Minor 



647. Con- 
trast between 
sculpture of 
the Periclean 
Age and the 
later work 



648. The 

sculpture of 
Praxiteles 
and Scopas 



sumptuous than the simpler Doric and Ionic forms (p. 340). 
Although our earliest example of such columns still survives 
at Athens (Fi*. 190), they are now called Corinthian columns. 

While Athens no longer possessed the means to erect great 
state temples, other Greek states were not all so financially ex- 
hausted. In Asia Minor the widowed queen of the wealthy king 
of the Carians, Mausolus, so revered the memory of her royal 
husband that she devoted vast riches to the erection of a mag- 
nificent marble tomb for him, so splendid that it became one 
of the most famous monuments of the ancient world (head- 
piece, p, 406). While imposing as a monument of architecture, 
the Mausoleum (so named after Mausolus ; see note, p. 406) 
was most impressive because of the rich and remarkable sculp- 
ture with which it was adorned. To do this work the widowed 
queen called in the greatest sculptors of the Greeks. 

Sculpture had made great progress since the days of Pericles. 
Phidias and his pupils depicted the gods, whom they wrought 
in marble, as lofty, majestic, unapproachable beings, lifted high 
above human weaknesses and human feeling. We remember 
that even the human figures of Phidias were not the everyday 
men and women, youths and maidens whom we might have 
met on the streets of Athens (§ 577). When Phidias and his 
pupils had passed away, the sculptors who followed them began 
to put more of the feeling and the experience of daily human 
life into their work and thus brought their subjects nearer to 
us. Among them we must give a high place, perhaps the high- 
est place, to the great Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. 

His native city being without the money for great monu- 
mental works, Praxiteles wrought individual figures of life size, 
and most of these for foreign states. Unlike the majestic and 
exalted figures of Phidias, the gods of Praxiteles seem near to 
us. They at once appeal to us as being human like ourselves, 
interested in a life like ours, and doing things which we would 
lik^ to do ourselves. As they stand at ease in attitudes of repose, 
the grace and balance of the flowing lines give them a splendor 




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The Higher Life of the Greeks 409 

of beauty unattained by any earlier sculpture of the Greeks 
(Figs. 187, 194, and 195). In great contrast with the work 
of Praxiteles was that of Scopas, who did much of the sculpture 
of the Mausoleum. He loved to fashion figures not in tranquil 
moods, but in violent action, in moments of passionate excite- 
ment, like that of warriors in battle (Fig. 196). T\\^ faces sculp- 
tured by Praxiteles and Scopas were no longer expressionless, 
as in earlier sculpture (Figs. 168 and 169); but the artists began 
to put into them some of their own inner feeling. The artist's 
own individual life thus began to find expression in his work. 
In many ways the sculpture of this age was much influenced 
by the work of the painters, who really led the way. 

The introduction of portable paintings on wooden tablets 649. Rise of 
made it more easy for the painters to follow their own individ- ^ood"^^ °^ 
ual feelings, for they were thus freed from the necessity of 
painting large scenes on the walls of State buildings (§ 572). 
As we have already learned (§ 550), no oil colors were known 
in the ancient world, but the Greek painters now adopted the 
Egyptian method of mixing their colors in melted wax and 
then applying the fluid wax with a brush to a wooden tablet 
(Plate VIII, p. 654). The painter could then work in his own 
studio to please his own fancy, and could sell his paintings to 
any private purchaser who wished to buy. It thus became cus- 
tomary for people of wealth to set up paintings in their own 
houses, and in this way private support of art was much fur- 
thered, and painting made great progress. 

An Athenian painter named Apollodorus now began to notice 650. Discov- 
that the light usually fell on an object from one side, leaving the p^^nt light, ° 
unlighted side so dark that but little color showed on that side, shadow, and 

y ' perspective 

while on the lighted side the colors came out very brightly. 
When he painted a woman's arm in this way, lo, it looked round 
and seemed to stand out from the surface of the painting 
(Fig. 197) ; whereas up in the Painted Porch all the human limbs 
in the old painting of Marathon (§ 572) looked perfectly flat. 
By representing figures in the background of his paintings, as 



4IO 



Ancient Times 




Fig. 197. A Wall-Painting at Pompeii showing the Sacri- 
fice OF Iphigenia 

The works of the great fourth-century artists {§651) have all perished, 
but it is supposed that the later house decorators and wall-painters of 
Italy copied the old masterpieces. Hence the scene here shown prob- 
ably conveys some impression of old Greek painting. The scene shows 
us the maid Iphigenia as she is carried away to be slain as a sacrifice. 
The figure at the left, standing with veiled face, suggests, as often in 
modern art, the dreadfulness of a coming catastrophe, which human 
eyes are unwilling to behold. Note the skill with which human limbs 
are made to show thickness and roundness (§ 650) 

smaller than those in front Apollodorus also introduced what we 
now call perspective. As a result, his paintings had an appear- 
ance of depth, and when he painted the interior of a house one 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 



411 



seemed to be looking into the very room itself. He was called 
by the Athenians the '' shadow painter," and the good old- 
fashioned folk shook their heads at his work, preferring the 
old style. Even the great philosopher Plato (§ 671) con- 
demned this new method of painting as employing devices 
and creating illusions of depth which were really deception. 





^iwiiiiiiii^^ 

A n 

Fig. 198. Greek Boy pulling out a Thorn {A) and a Later 

Caricature of the Thorn Puller {B) 

The graceful figure of the slender boy so seriously striving to remove 
the thorn was probably wrought not long after the Persian Wars. It 
was very popular in antiquity, as it has also been in modern times. The 
comical caricature [B] in clay (terra cotta), though it has lost one foot, 
is a delightful example of Greek humor expressed in parody (§ 652) 

Nevertheless, the new method triumphed, and the younger 651. Tri- 
painters who adopted it produced work which was the talk of neWmethod 
the town. People gossiped about it and told how a painter of painting 
named Zeuxis, in order to outdo his rival Parrhasius, had painted 
grapes so naturally that the birds flew up to the painting and 
pecked at them. Thereupon Parrhasius invited Zeuxis over to 
his studio to inspect a painting of his. Zeuxis found it covered 



412 



Ancie7it Times 



652. Vase- 
painters and 
other artist- 
craftsmen 



J 




with a curtain which he attempted to draw aside. But his hand 

fell on a painted surface and he discovered to his confusion that 

the curtain was no more real than his own painted grapes had 

; - , been. Unfortunately, all 

.->^^^ such Greek paintings 

i ' have perished, and we 

have only later copies 
(Fig. 197) at Pompeii. 
The vase-painters of 
the time likewise often 
copied the famous works 
of the leading sculptors 
and painters. But after 
a wonderful revival in 
the last Peloponnesian 



war, the art of vase- 
painting passed into a 
melancholy decline from 
which it never recovered. 
At the same time, in 
order to meet the rising 
desire for objects of art 
among the people, small 
artists began to furnish 
delightful miniature cop- 
ies of famous classic 
works, or again they 
made delicious carica- 
tures of such well-known 
classics (Fig. 198, B). At 
the same time even stone- 
cutters wrought tomb- 
stones, bearing reliefs done with a soft and melancholy beauty, 
breathing the wistful uncertainty with which the Greeks of this 
age were beginning to look out into the shadow world (Fig. 199;. 



LJi 



Fig. 199. Athenian Gravestone 
SHOWING A Daughter saying Fare- 
well TO her Parents 

This tombstone of a young girl shows us 
the fine feeling of which even a grave- 
yard stonecutter was capable. He has 
depicted the last farewell of the parents, 
as their daughter is carried away by death. 
The mother, seated at the left, grasps the 
young girl's hand, while the father stands 
with his fingers in his beard in somber 
and meditative reconciliation 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 413 

Section 62. Religion, Literature, and Thought 

Any young Athenian born at about the time of Pericles' 653. The age 
death found himself in an age of conflict wherever he went : after the 
an age of conflict abroad on the field of battle as he stood with pg^icies 
spear and shield in the Athenian ranks in the long years of 
warfare between Athens, Sparta, and Thebes; an age of 
conflict at home in Athens amid the excited shouting and 
applause of the turbulent Assembly or the tumult and even 
bloodshed of the streets and markets of the city as the common 
people, the democracy, struggled with the nobles for the leader- 
ship of the State ; and finally in an age of conflict i7i himself z.^ 
he felt his once confident faith in old things struggling to 
maintain itself against new views. 

He recalled the childhood tales of the gods, which he had 654. The 
heard at his nurse's knee. When he had asked her how Athena citizen's re- 
and the gods looked, she had pointed to a beautiful vase in his efj-'lTli^e^ 
father's house, bearing graceful paintings of Athena presenting 
the olive tree to the Athenians, and of the angry Sea-god 
striking his trident into the ground and leaving a mark which 
the lad's nurse had shown him at the Erechtheum on the 
Acropolis (p. 394). There were the gods on the vase in human 
form, and so he had long thought of them as people like those 
of Athens. He had learned, too, that they were near by, for 
he had seen his father present gifts to them at household 
feasts. Later when he went to school and memorized long 
passages of the Homeric poems, he had learned more about 
their adventures on earth. Then he had stood on the edge of 
the crowd with his parents watching the magnificent State 
feasts, like the Panathensea (§ 570), supported at great expense, 
in order to honor the gods and keep them favorable to Athens. 
Hence everyone seemed to him to believe that the gods had 
all power over Athens. On such occasions he vaguely felt the 
majesty and grandeur of the great gods, but when he looked 
upon figures of them, sculptured by such artists as Praxiteles 



414 



Ancient Times 



655. Religion 
and conduct 



656. The re- 
ligion of the 
multitude 



657. The 
foreign gods 
from the 
Orient 



(Fig. 194), the gods again appeared very much like earthly 
folk, as he had seen them on the vase in his childhood. 

He never had any religious instruction, for there was nothing 
like a church, a clergy, or any religious teachers. There was no 
sacred book revered by all, like our Bible. He had not been 
taught that the gods had any interest in him or his conduct, or 
that they required him to be either good or bad. As long as he 
did not neglect any of the ceremonies desired by the gods, 
he knew he need have no fear of them. At the same time if 
he lived an evil life, he realized that he might be condemned to 
enter at death a dark and gruesome dwelling place beneath 
the earth (§ 488). On the other hand, a good life might bring 
him at last to the beautiful Elysian fields (§ 489). 

One of the ways of reaching this place of blessedness was by 
initiation into the mysteries at Eleusis (§ 489). Another way 
was to follow the teachings of the beggar-priests and sooth- 
sayers of Orpheus. These wandering teachers, like traveling 
revival preachers of to-day, went about in all Greece, followed 
by hordes of the poor and ignorant, who eagerly accepted their 
mysterious teachings, promising every blessing to those who 
listened and obeyed. The more mysterious it all was the better 
the multitude liked it. These teachings were recorded in the 
wonderful book of Orpheus, which finally gained wide circula- 
tion among the common people. It came nearer to being the 
sacred book of the Greeks than any that ever arose among 
them. All the lower classes believed in magic and were deeply 
impressed by the mysterious '' stunts " of the magicians and 
soothsayers whom they constantly consulted on all the ordinary 
acts of life. 

Down at Piraeus, the harbor town, the Athenian citizen 
found the busy streets crowded with foreign merchants from 
Egypt, Phoenicia, and Asia Minor. They, too, had their assur- 
ances of divine help and blessedness, and they brought with 
them their strange gods : the Great Mother from Asia Minor, 
Isis from her lovely temple at the First Cataract of the Nile 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 415 

(Plate V, p. 444), and Egyptian Amon from his mysterious 
shrine far away in the Sahara (Fig. 205), behind the Greek 
city of Cyrene (see map, p. 436). The famous Greek poet 
Pindar had written a poem in his honor, and erected a statue 
of the great Egyptian god. As a deliverer of oracles reveal- - 
ing the future, Amon had now become as great a favorite 
among the Greeks themselves as Apollo of Delphi (§ 490). 
There was an Athenian ship which regularly plied between 
the Piraeus and Cyrene, carrying the Greeks to Amon's dis- 
tant Sahara shrine. Egyptian symbols too were common 
on Greek tombstones. 

Some of these foreign beliefs had once greatly impressed our 658. The 
citizen in his younger days. Then when he left his boyhood citizen's later 
teacher behind, and went to hear the lectures of a noted uncertainties 
Sophist (§ 561), he found that no one knew with any certainty 
whether the gods even existed ; much less did anyone know 
what they were like. He now looked with some pity at the 
crowds of pilgrims who filled the sacred road leading to the 
hall of the mysteries at Eleusis. He had only contempt for 
the mob which filled the processions of the strange oriental 
gods, and almost every day marched with tumult and flute- 
playing through the streets of Athens. While he could not 
follow such superstitions of the ignorant poor, he found, never- 
theless, that he was not yet quite ready to throw away the gods 
and reject them altogether, as some of his educated neighbors 
were doing. 

He recalled the days of his youth, when he had detested 659. The 

victory of 

these very doubts which he had now taken up. With great doubt and 
enjoyment he had once beheld the caricatures of Aristophanes, o^^Euripides 
the greatest of the comedy writers (§ 582). Our citizen had 
shouted with delight at Aristophanes' mockery of the doubts 
and mental struggles of Euripides (§ 581), or the ridicule which 
the clever comedy heaped upon the Sophists. Since then, 
however, had come the new light which he had gained from the 
Sophists. Whatever the gods might be like, he was sure that 



4i6 



Ancient Times 



660. Aris- 
tophanes and 
Socrates 



they were not such beings as he found pictured among his 
heroic forefathers in the Homeric poems. Now he had long 
since cast aside his Homer. In spite of Aristophanes, he and 

his educated friends were all read- 
ing the splendid tragedies of 
Euripides (§ 581), with their un- 
certainties, struggles, and doubts 
about life and the gods. Euripides, 
the victim of Aristophanes' ridi- 
cule, to whom the Athenians had 
rarely voted a victory during his 
lifetime (§ 581), had now tri- 
umphed , but his triumph meant 
the defeat of the old, the victory 
of doubt, the overthrow of the 
gods, and the incoming of a new 
age in thought and belief. But 
the old died hard, and the struggle 
was a tragic one. 

The citizen remembered well 
another comedy of Aristophanes, 
which had likewise found a ready 
response from the Athenian audi- 
ence. It had placed upon the 
stage the rude and comical figure 
of a poor Athenian named Soc- 
rates, whom Aristophanes had 
represented as a dangerous man, 
to be shunned or even chastised 
by good Athenians. He was the 
son of a stonecutter, or small 
sculptor. The ill-clothed figure and ugly face (Fig. 200) of 
Socrates had become familiar in the streets to all the folk of 
Athens since the outbreak of the second war with Sparta. He 
was accustomed to stand about the market place all day long. 




Fig. 200. Portrait of 
Socrates 

This is not the best of the 
numerous surviving portraits 
of Socrates, but it is especially- 
interesting because it bears 
under the philosopher's name 
nine inscribed Hnes contain- 
ing a portion of his public de- 
fense as reported by Plato in 
his Apology 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 417 

engaging in conversation anyone he met, and asking a great 
many questions. Our citizen recalled that Socrates' questions 
left him in a very confused state of mind, for he seemed to call 
in question everything which the citizen had once regarded 
as settled. 

Yet this familiar and homely figure of the stonecutter's son 661. The 
was the personification of the best and highest in Greek genius, chief interest 
Without desire for office or a political career, Socrates' supreme *^^ Socrates 
interest nevertheless was the State. He believed that the State, 
made up as it was of citizens, could be purified and saved only 
by the improvement of the individual citizen through the educa- 
tion of his mind to recognize virtue and right. 

Herein lies the supreme achievement of Socrates ; namely, 662, His be- 
his unshakable conviction that the human mind is able to recog- power to dis •• 
nize and determine what are virtue and right, truth, beauty and t^JJJis^ag^ud! 
honesty, and all the other great ideas which mean so much to and to shape 
human life. To him these ideas had reality. He taught that by them 
by keen questioning and discussion it is possible to reject error 
and discern these realities. Inspired by this impregnable belief, 
Socrates went about in Athens, engaging all his fellow citizens 
in such discussion, convinced that he might thus lead each 
citizen in turn to a knowledge of the leading and compelling 
virtues. Furthermore, he firmly believed that the citizen who 
had once recognized these virtues would shape eveiy action and 
all his life by them. Socrates thus revealed the power of virtue 
and of similar ideas by argument and logic, but he made no 
appeal to religion as an influence toward good conduct. Never- 
theless, he showed himself a deeply religious man, believing with 
devout heart in the gods, although they were not exactly those 
of the fathers, and even feeling, like the Hebrew prophets, 
that there was a divine voice within him, calling him to his 
high mission. 

The simple but powerful personality of this greatest of 663. Public 
Greek teachers often opened to him the houses of the rich socrates*^ 
and noble. His fame spread far and wide, and when the 



Ancient Times 



664. The trial 
and death of 
Socrates 
(399 B.C.) 



665. The in- 
fluence of 
Socrates 
after his 
death 



Delphian oracle (§ 490) was asked who was the wisest of the 
living, it responded with the name of Socrates. A group of 
pupils gathered about him, among whom the most famous 
was Plato. But his aims and his noble efforts on behalf of the 
Athenian State were misunderstood. His keen questions seemed 
to throw doubt upon all the old beliefs. The Athenians had 
already vented their displeasure on more than one leading 
Sophist who had rejected the old faith and teaching (§ 593). 

So the Athenians summoned Socrates to trial for corrupting 
the youth with all sorts of doubts and impious teachings. Such 
examples as Alcibiades, who had. been his pupil, seemed con- 
vincing illustrations of the viciousness of his teaching; many 
had seen and still more had read with growing resentment 
the comedy of Aristophanes which held him up to contempt 
and execration. Socrates might easily have left Athens when 
the complaint was lodged against him. Nevertheless he appeared 
for trial, made a powerful and dignified defense, and, when the 
court voted the death penalty, passed his last days in tranquil 
conversation with his friends and pupils, in whose presence 
he then quietly drank the fatal hemlock (399 B.C.). Thus the 
Athenian democracy, which had so fatally mismanaged the 
affairs of the nation in war, brought upon itself much greater 
reproach in condemning to death, even though in accordance 
with law, the greatest and purest soul among its citizens 
(headpiece, p. 425). 

The undisturbed serenity of Socrates in his last hours, as 
pictured to us in Plato's idealized version of the scene, pro- 
foundly affected the whole Greek world and still forms one of 
the most precious possessions of humanity. He was the great- 
est Greek, and in him Greek civilization reached its highest 
level. But the glorified figure of Socrates, as he appears in the 
writings of his pupils, was to prove more powerful even than 
the living teacher. 

Meantime there had been growing up a body of scientific 
knowledge about the visible world, which men had never 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 419 

possessed before. Moreover this new scientific knowledge was 666. Spread 
no longer confined to the few philosophers who were its dis- knowiTdge^ 
coverers, as formerly had been the case (§ 564). Our doubt- ^^^"f ^^^ 
ing citizen had at home a whole shelf of books on natural 
science. It included a treatise on mathematics, an astronomy 
in which the year was at last stated to contain 365I days, 
a zoology and a botany. There was also a mineralogy, a pam- 
phlet on foretelling the weather, and a treatise on the calendar, 
besides several geographies with maps of the world then known. 
There were also practical books of guidance and instruction on 
drawing, war, farming, raising horses, or even cooking. 

There was in our citizen's library also a remarkable history, 667. Scien- 
treating the fortunes of nations iji the same way in which ofhirtory^^ 
natural science was treated. Its author was Thucydides, the 
first scientific writer of history. A generation earlier Herodo- 
tus' history (§ 567) had ascribed the fortunes of nations to 
the will of the gods, but Thucydides, with an insight like that 
of modern historians, traced historical events to their earthly 
causes in the world of men where they occur. There stood the 
two books, Herodotus and Thucydides, side by side in the citi- 
zen's library. There were only thirty years or so between them, 
but how different the beliefs of the two historians, the old and 
the new ! Thucydides was one of the greatest writers of simple 
and beautiful prose that ever lived. His book which told the 
story of the long wars resulting in the fall of the Athenian 
Empire was received by the Greeks with enthusiastic approval. 
It has been one of the world's great classics ever since. 

The success of Thucydides' work in prose shows that the 668. The 
interest of the Athenians was no longer in poetry but in the poet'iy^nd 
new and more youthful art of prose. Poetry, including play- ^^J^ triumph 
writing, noticeably declined. A successful public speech was 
now written down beforehand, and the demand for such ad- 
dresses in the Assembly, and especially before the citizen-juries, 
was a constant motive for the cultivation of skillful prose 
writing and public speaking. 



420 A7icie7it Times 

669. Athens The teachers of rhetoric at Athens, the successors of the 
lducSo?;° old Sophists (§ 562), became world renowned, and they made 
isocrates ^^ ^j^-y ^^ center of education for the whole Greek world. 

The leader among them was Isocrates, the son of a well-to-do 
flute manufacturer. Having lost his father's fortune in the 
Peloponnesian Wars, he turned for a living to the teaching of 
rhetoric, in which he soon showed great ability. He chose as 
his theme the great political questions of his time. He was not 
a good speaker, and he therefore devoted himself especially 
to the writing of his speeches, which he then published as 
political essays. Throughout Greece these remarkable essays 
were read, and Isocrates finally became the political spokesman 
of Athens, if not of all Greece. 

670. Rise of Notwithstanding the new interest in natural science, the 
government' affairs of men rather than of nature were the burning questions 

at Athens. How should the governmental affairs of a commu- 
nity of men be conducted ? — what should be the proper form 
of a free state ? — these were the problems which Athenian 
experience and the efforts of Socrates toward an enlightened 
citizenship had thrust into the foreground. What should be the 
form of the ideal state ? The Orient had already had its social 
idealism. In the Orient, however, it had never occurred to the 
social dreamers to discuss the for?n of govei'nment of the ideal 
state. They accepted as a matter of course the monarchy under 
which they lived as the obvious form for the State. But in 
Greece the question of the form of government, whether a king- 
dom, a republic, or an aristocracy, was now earnestly discussed. 
Thus there arose a new science, the science of governmejit. 

671. Plato Plato, the most gifted pupil of Socrates, published much of 

his beloved master's teaching in the form of dialogues, sup- 
posedly reproducing the discussions of the great teacher him- 
self. Then after extensive travels in Egypt and the west he 
returned to Athens, where he set up his school in the grove 
of the Academy (§ 558). Convinced of the hopelessness of 
democracy in Athens, he reluctantly gave up all thought of a 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 421 

career as a statesman, to which he had been strongly drawn, 
and settled down at Athens to devote himself to teaching. 

Plato was both philosopher and poet. The ideas which 672. Plato's 
Socrates maintained the human mind could discern, became oflhe'so^^"^ 
for Plato eternal realities, having an existence independent of ^"^^^^^ ^^^^^ 
man and his mind. The human soul, he taught, had always 
existed, and in an earlier state had beheld the great ideas of 
goodness, beauty, evil, and the like, and had gained an intuitive 
vision of them which in this earthly life the soul now recalled 
and recognized again. The elect souls, gifted with such vision, 
were the ones to control the ideal state, for they would neces- 
sarily act in accordance with the ideas of virtue and justice 
which they had discerned. It was possible by education, thought 
Plato, to lead the souls of men to a clear vision of these ideas. 

In a noble essay entitled The Republic Plato presented a 673. Plato's 
lofty vision of his ideal state. Here live the enlightened souls 
governing society in righteousness and justice. They do no 
work, but depend on craftsmen and slaves for all menial labor. 
And yet the comforts and leisure which they enjoy are the 
product of that very world of industry and commerce in a 
Greek city which Plato so thoroughly despises. The plan 
places far too much dependence on education and takes no 
account of the dignity and importance of labor in human 
society. Moreover, Plato's ideal state is the self-contained, self- 
controlling city-state as it had in times past supposedly existed 
in Greece. He failed to perceive that the vital question for 
Greece was now the relation of these city-states to each other. 
He did not discern that the life of a cultivated state unavoid- 
ably expands beyond its borders, and by its needs and its 
contributions affects the life of surrounding states. It cannot 
be confined within its political borders, for its commercial borders 
lie as far distant as its galleys can carry its produce. 

Thus boundary lines cannot separate nations ; their life over- 674. Growth 
laps and interfuses with the life round about them. It was so ized world 
within Greece, and it was so far beyond the borders of Greek 



422 



A7tcie7it Times 



675. Motives 
toward unity: 
I Socrates and 
Xenophon 



676. Unalter- 
able disunion 
the end of 
Greek politi- 
cal develop- 
ment 



territory. There had grown up a civilized world which was 
reading Greek books, using Greek utensils, fitting up its houses 
with Greek furniture, decorating its house interiors with Greek 
paintings, building Greek theaters, learning Greek tactics in 
war — a great Mediterranean and oriental world bound to- 
gether by lines of commerce, travel, and common economic 
interests. For this world, as a coming political unity, the lofty 
idealist Plato, in spite of his travels, had no eyes. To this 
world, once dominated by oriental culture, the Greeks had 
given the noblest and sanest ideas .yet attained by the mind 
of civilized man, and to this world likewise the Greeks should 
have given political leadership. 

Men in practical life, like Isocrates, clearly understood the 
situation at this time. Isocrates urged the Greeks to bury their 
petty differences and expand their purely sectional patriotism 
into loyalty toward a great nation which should unite the whole 
Greek world. He told his countrymen that, so united, they 
could easily overthrow the decaying Persian Empire and make 
themselves lords of the world, whereas now, while they con- 
tinued to fight among themselves, the king of Persia could do 
as he pleased with them. In an inspiring address distributed to 
the Greeks at the Olympic games, he said : " Anyone coming 
from abroad and observing the present situation of Greece 
would regard us as great fools struggling among ourselves 
about trifles, and destroying our own land, when without dan- 
ger we might conquer Asia." To all Greeks who had read 
Xenophon 's story of the march of his Ten Thousand, the 
weakness of the Persian Empire was obvious. Every motive 
toward unity was present. 

Nevertheless, no Greek city was willing to submit to the 
leadership of another. Local patriotism, like the sectionalism 
which brought on our Civil War, prevailed, and unalterable dis- 
union was the end of Greek political development. As a result 
the Greeks were now to be subjected by an outside power, 
which had never had any share in advancing Greek culture 



The Higher Life of the Greeks 423 

(§ 678). Thus the fine theories of the ideal form of the state 
so warmly discussed at Athens were now to be met by the 
hard fact of irresistible power in the hands of a single ruler — 
the form of power which the Greek republics had in vain striven 
to destroy. 

But in spite of this final and melancholy collapse of Greek 677. Siiprem- 
political power, which even the wealth and splendor of the west- genius in 
ern Greek cities in Italy and Sicily, like Syracuse, had not been po^tj^f^i 
able to prevent, what an incomparably glorious age of Greek collapse 
civilization was this which we have been sketching ! The rival- 
ries which proved so fatal to the political leadership of the 
Greeks had been a constant incentive spurring them all on, as 
each city strove to surpass its rivals in art and literature and all 
the finest things in civilization. Great as the age of Pericles 
had been, the age that followed was still greater. The tiny 
Athenian state, with a population not larger than that of our 
little state of Delaware in 19 10, and having at best twenty-five 
or thirty thousand citizens, had furnished in this period a group 
of great names in all lines of human achievement, such as never 
in all the history of the world arose in an area and a population 
so limited. In a book like this we have been able to offer only 
a few hints of all that these men of Athens accomplished. 
Their names to-day are among the most illustrious in human 
history, and the achievements which we link with them form 
the greatest chapter in the higher life of man. Furthermore, 
Greek genius was to go on to many another future triumph, 
in spite of the loss of that political leadership which we are now 
to see passing into other hands. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 61. Was Athens now able to support great works of art 
as in the days of Pericles.'^ What was the effect upon art? What 
lovely building was nevertheless erected on the Acropolis? What 
new style of architecture was coming in ? How did it differ from the 
older Doric and Ionic styles ? Describe the Mausoleum, How did 



424 Ancient Times 

the sculpture of Praxiteles differ from that of Phidias ? What kind 
of figures did Scopas love to carve ? What new process of producing 
portable paintings came in ? What new method of painting did 
Apollodorus introduce ? What popular stories about the feats of the 
new shadow painters arose? Have any of these paintings survived? 
How do we know how they looked? What kind of small works did 
the lesser artists produce ? 

Section 62. In what respects was the age following Pericles one 
of conflict ? W^hat did an Athenian child of this time learn about the 
gods at home ? at school ? at public celebrations ? from great works 
of art? Had he had any religious instruction? What did he believe 
about his own conduct and the relation of the gods to it? What did 
the common people believe? What teachers did they follow? Did 
they show intelligence or superstition in religious matters? 

What foreign divinities were coming in ? Tell about them. What 
did the educated citizen think about the beliefs of the common 
people? What had once been his feeling about religious doubt? 
Whose comedies had mocked such doubt? From whom did such 
a citizen himself learn to doubt? Whose tragedies were he and 
his friends reading? Did this mean the suppression or the triumph 
of doubt? 

How did one of the comedies of Aristophanes represent Socrates? 
How did Socrates spend most of his time? What was his purpose 
in doing this ? Can you sum up his teachings ? Was he then an evil 
man ? Was he irreligious ? What was the general opinion about his 
wisdom ? about his character ? What did the Athenians finally do in 
order to silence Socrates? Tell about his trial and death. Did his 
influence cease at his death ? 

W^hat was the condition of scientific knowledge at Athens ? How 
did the history of Thucydides differ from that of Herodotus? How 
much time had elapsed between them ? What can you say of prose 
and poetry in this age? Who was the leading teacher of rhetoric 
and prose writing at Athens ? What can you say of his own writing ? 
What new science was arising? W^hat can you say of the life of 
Plato ? What did he teach about government ? W^hat great question 
did he fail to perceive ? What civilized world was growing up ? Why 
had not the Greeks given this world of Greek culture also political 
unity? How did practical men like Isocrates feel about this prob- 
lem ? Did the Greeks follow his advice ? What was to be the result ? 







«/SluwSS 



\ . j^2^'^' Mm'" '' ^t^'^ 



■^^^^l^iM^SM 



CHAPTER XIX 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



SkcTioN 63. The Rise of Macedonia 



On the northern frontiers in the mountains of the Balkan Pen- 
insula Greek civilization gradually faded and disappeared, merg- 
ing into the barbarism which had descended from Stone Age 
Europe. These backward Northerners, such as the Thracians, 
spoke Indo-European tongues akin to Greek, but their Greek 
kindred of the South could not understand them. A veneer 

Note. The above headpiece shows us one of the streets where it was the' 
custom of both the Greeks and Romans (Fig. 212, H, K) to bury their dead. 
It was outside the Dipylon Gate (plan, p. 352), on the sacred way leading to 
Eleusis, both sides of which were lined for some distance with marble tomb- 
stones, of which Fig. 199 is an example. The Roman Sulla (§ 945), in his Eastern 
war, while besieging Athens, piled up earth as a causeway leading to the top of 
the wall of Athens (see plan, p. 352) at this point. The part of the cemetery which 
he covered with earth was thus preserved, to be dug out in modem times — the 
only surviving portion of such an ancient Greek street of tombs. In this ceme- 
tery the Athenians of Socrates' day were buried. The monument at the left shows 
a brave Athenian youth on horseback, charging the fallen enemy. He was slain 
in the Corinthian War (§ 633) and buried here a few years after the death of 
Socrates (§ 664). 

425 



678. The un- 
cultivated 
states of the 
Balkan Pen- 
insula and 
the North 



426 Ancient Times 

of Greek civilization began here and there to mask soraewhat 
the rough and uncultivated life of the peasant population of 
Macedonia. The Macedonian kings began to cultivate Greek 
literature and art. The mother of Philip of Macedon was 
grateful that she had been able to learn to write in her old age. 

679. Philip Philip himself had enjoyed a Greek education, and when he 
and his policy gained the power over Macedonia, in 360 B.C., he understood 
of expansion perfectly the situation of the disunited Greek world. He 

planned to make himself its master, and he began his task with 
the ability both of a skilled statesman and an able soldier. With 
clear recognition of the necessary means, he first created the 
indispensable military power. As a hostage at Thebes he had 
learned to lead an army under the eye of no less a master than 
Epaminondas himself, the conqueror of the Spartans. But 
Philip surpassed his teacher. 

680. Philip From the peasant population of his kingdom Philip drew off 
Mace^donian ^ number large enough to form a permanent or standing army 
infantry Qf professional soldiers who never expected again to return to 

the flocks and fields. These men he armed as heavy infantry of 
the phalanx, as he had seen it in Greece ; only he made the pha- 
lanx deeper and more massive and gave his men longer spears. 
They soon became famous as the " Macedonian phalanx." 

681. Mace- Heretofore horsemen had played but a small part in war in 
men and Europe. Horscs were plentiful in Philip's kingdom, and the 
Philip's com- nobles f orminej a warrior class had always been accustomed to 

bmation oi ° ■' 

cavalry and fight onhorseback in a loose way, each for himself. Philip now 
unified drilled these riders to move about and to attack in a single 

operations niass. The charge of such a mass of horsemen was so terrible 
that it might of itself decide a battle. Philip then further im- 
proved the art of war by a final step, the most important of all. 
He so combined his heavy phalanx in the center^ with the disci- 
plined masses of horsemen on each wing^ that the whole com- 
bined force, infantry and cavalrv, moved and operated as one 
great unit, an irresistible machine in which every part worked 
t09:ether with all the others. 



Alexander the Great 



427 



This new chapter in the art of warfare was possible only 
because a single mind was in unhampered control of the situ- 
ation. The Greeks were now to witness the practical effective- 
ness of one-man control as exercised by a skillful leader for 
many years. With statesmanlike insight Philip first began his 
conquests in the region where he might expect the least resist- 
ance. He steadily extended the territory of his kingdom east- 
ward and northward until it reached the Danube and the 
Hellespont. 

His progress on the north of 
the ^gean soon brought him 
into conflict with the interests of 
the Greek states, which owned 
cities in this northern region. 
Philip's conquests were viewed 
with mixed feelings at Athens, 
toward which the Macedonian 
king himself felt very friendly, 
for he had the greatest admira- 
tion for the Gr-eeks. Two parties 
therefore arose at Athens. One 
of them was quite willing to 
accept Philip's proffered friend- 
ship, and recognized in him the 
uniter and savior of the Greek 

world. The leader of this party was Isocrates (§ 675), now an 
aged man. The other party, on the contrary, denounced Philip 
as a barbarous tyrant who was endeavoring to enslave the 
free Greek cities. 

The leader of this anti-Macedonian party was the great orator 
Demosthenes (Fig. 201). In one passionate appeal after another 
he addressed the Athenian people, as he strove to arouse them 
to the growing danger threatening the Greek states with every 
added triumph of Philip's powerful army. By the whirlwind of 
his marvelous eloquence he carried the Athenian Assembly with 




Fig. 201. Portrait Bust 
OF Demosthenes 



682. Practical 

advantages 

of one-man 

control ; 

Philip's 

Northern 

conquests 



683. Two 
parties at 
Athens : 
I Socrates 



684. Demos- 
thenes 



428 



Ancient Times 



685. Philip 
gains the 
leadership 
of the Greeks 

(338 B.C.) 



686. The 

successors 
of Philip of 
Macedon 



687. Educa- 
tion and 
character of 
Alexander 
the Great 



him. His '' Philippics," as his denunciations of King Philip are 
called, are among the greatest specimens of Greek eloquence, 
and have become traditional among us as noble examples of 
oratorical power inspired by high and patriotic motives. But 
they were very immoderate in their abuse and denunciation of 
his opponents in Athens, nor can it be said that they display a 
statesmanlike understanding of the hopelessly disunited condi- 
tion of the ever-warring Greek states. 

The outcome of the struggle which unavoidably came on 
between Philip and the Greek states showed that the views 
of Isocrates, while less ideally attractive, were far more saga- 
cious and statesmanlike than those of Demosthenes. After a 
long series of hostilities Philip defeated the Greek forces in 
a final battle at Chaeronea (338 B.C.), and firmly established 
his position as head of a league of all the Greek states except 
Sparta, which still held out against him. He had begun oper- 
ations in Asia Minor for the freedom of the Greek cities there, 
when two years after the battle of Chaeronea he was stabbed 
by conspirators during the revelries at the wedding of his 
daughter (336 B.C.). 

The power passed into the hands of his son Alexander, a 
youth of only twenty years. Fortunately Philip also left behind 
him in the Macedonians of his court a group of remarkable 
men, of imperial abilities. They were devoted to the royal 
house, and Alexander's early successes were in no small 
measure due to them. But their very devotion and ability, 
as we shall see, later brought the young king into a personal 
conflict which contained all the elements of a tremendous 
tragedy (§ 709). 

When Alexander was thirteen years of age his father had 
summoned to the Macedonian court the great philosopher 
Aristotle (§ 760), a former pupil of Plato, to be the teacher 
of the young prince. Under his instruction the lad learned to 
know and love the masterpieces of Greek literature, especially 
the Homeric songs. The deeds of the ancient heroes touched 



Alexander the Great 429 

and kindled his youthful imagination and lent a heroic tinge 
to his whole character. As he grew older and his mind ripened, 
his whole personality was imbued with the splendor of Greek 
genius and Hellenic culture. 

Section 64. Campaigns of Alexander the Great 

The Greek states were still unwilling to submit to Mace- 688. Alex- 
donian leadership, and they fancied they could overthrow so gateYthe^" 
youthful a ruler as Alexander. They were soon to learn how <^ reek states 

^ -^ and becomes 

old a head there was on his youno^ shoulders. When Thebes head of a 

Greek 

revolted against Macedonia for the second time after Philip's league 
death, Alexander, knowing that he must take up the struggle 
with Persia, realized that it would not be safe for him to march 
into Asia without giving the Greek states a lesson which they 
would not soon forget. He therefore captured and completely 
destroyed the ancient city of Thebes, sparing' only the house of 
the great poet Pindar. All Greece was thus taught to fear and 
respect his power, but learned at the same time to recognize 
his reverence for Greek genius. Feeling him to be their natural 
leader, therefore, the Greek states, with the exception of Sparta, 
formed a league and elected Alexander as its leader and general. 
As a result they all sent troops to increase his army. 

The Asiatic campaign which Alexander now planned was to 689. Alex- 
vindicate his position as the champion of Hellas against Asia, champion 
He thought to lead the united Greeks against the Persian lord ^^ Hellas 

^ ^ _ agamst Asia 

of Asia, as the Hellenes had once made common cause against 
Asiatic Troy (§ 411). Leading his army of Macedonians and 
allied Greeks into Asia Minor, he therefore stopped at Troy 
and camped upon the plain (Fig. 151, and map, p. 436) where 
the Greek heroes of the Homeric songs had once fought. Here 
he worshiped in the temple of Athena, and prayed for the suc- 
cess of his cause against Persia. He thus contrived to throw 
around himself the heroic atmosphere of the Trojan War, 
till all Hellas beheld the dauntless figure of the Macedonian 



430 



Aficient Times 



690. Battle of 
the Granicus 
(334 B.C.) 
and conquest 
of Asia Minor 



691. Alexan- 
der's march 
through Asia 
Minor 



youth, as it were, against the background of that glorious age 
which in their belief had so long ago united Greek arms 
against Asia (§411). 

Meantime the Great King had hired thousands of Greek 
heavy-armed infantry', and they were now to do battle against 
their own Greek countr)^men. At the river Granicus, in his first 
critical battle, Alexander had no difficulty in scattering the forces 
of the western Persian satraps. Following the Macedonian 
custom, the young king, then but twenty-two years of age, led 
his troops into the thick of the fray and exposed his royal 
person without hesitation. But for the timely support of Clitus, 
the brother of his childhood nurse, who bravely pushed in before 
him at a critical moment, the impetuous young king would have 
lost his life in the action on the Granicus. Marching southward, 
he took the Greek cities one by one and freed all western Asia 
Minor forever from the Persian yoke. 

Meantime a huge Persian fleet was master of the Mediter- 
ranean. It was at this juncture that the young Macedonian, 
little more than a boy in years, began to display his mastery 
of a military situation which demanded the completest under- 
standing of the art of war. He had left a strong force at home, 
and he believed that the lesson of his destruction of Thebes 
would prevent the Persian fleet in the ^gean from arousing 
Hellas to rebellion against him during his absence. He there- 
fore pushed boldly eastward. Following the route of the Ten 
Thousand, Alexander led his army safely through the diffi- 
cult pass, called the Cilician Gates (see map, p. 436), and 
rounded the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. Here, 
as he looked out upon the Fertile Crescent, there was spread 
out before him the vast Asiatic world of forty million souls, 
where the family of the Great King had been supreme for two 
hundred years. In this great arena he was to be the champion 
for the next ten years {ZZZ-2)^Z B.C.). 

At this important point, by the Gulf of Issue, Alexander met 
the main army of Persia, under the personal command of the 



Alexander the Great 431 

Great King, Darius III, the last of the Persian line. The tac- 692. Defeat 
tics of his father Philip and Epaminondas, always to be the at the battle 
attacking party, were now adopted by Alexander, in spite of ^^ ^^^"^ 
the enemy's strong defensive position behind a stream. His 
attack was on the old plan of the oblique battle line (§ 638), 
with the cavalry forming the right wing nearest the enemy. 
Heading this cavalry charge himself, Alexander led his Mace- 
donian horsemen across the stream in such a fierce assault 
(Fig. 202) that the opposing Persian wing gave way. Along 
the center and the other wing, the battle was hotly fought and 
indecisive. But as Alexander's victorious horsemen of the right 
wing turned and attacked the exposed Persian center in the 
flank, the Macedonians swept the Asiatics from the field, and 
the disorderly retreat of Darius never stopped until it had crossed 
the Euphrates. The Great King then sent a letter to Alexander 
desiring terms of peace and offering to accept the Euphrates as 
a boundary between them, all Asia west of that river to be 
handed over to the Macedonians. 

It was a dramatic picture, the figure of the young king, 693. The 
standing with this letter in his hand. As he pondered it he was aftefissus 
surrounded by a group of the ablest Macedonian youth, who and Alexan- 

. der's friends 

had grown up around him as his closest friends ; but likewise 
by old and trusted counselors upon whom his father before him 
had leaned. The hazards of battle and of march, and the daily 
associations of camp and bivouac, had wrought the closest bonds 
of love and friendship and intimate influence between these 
loyal Macedonians and their ardent young king. 

As he considered the letter of Darius, therefore, his father's 694. The 
old general Parmenio, who had commanded the Macedonian Parmenio 
left wins: in the battle lust won, proffered him serious counsel. *° accept 

*^ ^ ^ Persian terms 

We can almost see the old man leaning familiarly over the after issus 
shoulder of this imperious boy of twenty-three and pointing out 
across the Mediterranean, as he bade Alexander remember the 
Persian fleet operating there in his rear and likely to stir up 
revolt against him in Greece. He said too that with Darius 




432 



Alexander the Great 433 

behind the Euphrates, as proposed in the letter, Persia would 
be at a safe distance from Europe and the Greek world. The 
campaign against the Great King, he urged, had secured all 
that could reasonably be expected. Undoubtedly he added that 
Philip himself, the young king's father, had at the utmost no 
further plans against Persia than those already successfully 
carried out. There was nothing to do, said Parmenio, but to 
accept the terms offered by the Great King. 

In this critical decision lay the parting of the ways. Before 695. The de- 
the kindling eyes of the young Alexander . there rose a vision issus| and^ 
of world empire dominated by Greek civilization — a vision to ^jcdon^with 
which the duller eyes about him were entirely closed. He his friends 
waved aside his father's old counselors and decided to advance 
to the conquest of the whole Persian Empire. In this far- 
reaching decision he disclosed at once the powerful personality 
which represented a new age. Thus arose the conflict which 
never ends — the conflict between the new age and the old, 

* The artist who designed this great work has selected the supreme 
moment when the Persians (at the right) are endeavoring to rescue their 
king from the onset of the Macedonians (at the left). Alexander, the 
bareheaded figure on horseback at the left, charges furiously against 
the Persian king (Darius III), who stands in his chariot (at the right). 
The Macedonian attack is so impetuous that the Persian king's life is 
endangered. A Persian noble dismounts and offers his riderless horse, 
that the king may quickly mount and escape. Devoted Persian nobles 
heroically ride in between their king and the Macedonian onset, to give 
Darius an opportunity to mount. But Alexander's spear has passed 
entirely through the body of one of these Persian nobles, who has thus 
given his life for his king. Darius throws out his hand in grief and 
horror at the awful death of his noble friend. The driver of the royal 
chariot (behind the king) lashes his three horses, endeavoring to carry 
Darius from the field in flight (§ 692). This magnificent battle scene is 
put together from bits of colored glass (mosaic) forming a floor pave- 
ment, discovered in 1831 at the Roman town of Pompeii (Fig. 255). It 
has been injured in places, especially at the left, where parts of the 
figures of Alexander and his horse have disappeared. It was originally 
laid at Alexandria and suffered this damage in being moved to Italy. 
It is a copy of an older Hellenistic work, a painting done at Alexandria 
(§ 738)- It is one of the greatest scenes of heroism in battle ever 
painted, and illustrates the splendor of Hellenistic art. 



434 



Ancient Times 



696. Con- 
quest of 
Phoenicia 
and Egypt ; 
dispersion 
of the Per- 
sian fleet 



697. Alexan- 
der's march 
to Persia : 
battle of 
Arbela 
(331 B-C.) 



just as we have seen it at Athens (§ 653). Never has it been 
more dramatically staged than as we find it here in the daily 
growing friction between Alexander and that group of devoted, 
if less gifted, Macedonians who were now drawn by him into 
the labors of Heracles — the conquest of the world. 

The danger from the Persian fleet was now carefully and 
deliberately met by a march southward along the eastern end 
of the Mediterranean. All the Phoenician seaports on the way 
were captured. Here Alexander's whole campaign would have 
collapsed but for the siege machinery, the use of which his 
father had learned from the western Greeks. Against the walls 
of Tyre, Alexander employed machines which had been devised 
in the Orient (headpiece, p. 140), and which he was now bring- 
ing back thither with Greek improvements. Feeble Egypt, 
so long a Persian province, then fell an easy prey to the 
Macedonian arms. The Persian fleet, thus deprived of all its 
home harbors and cut off from its home government, soon 
scattered and disappeared. 

Having thus cut off the enemy in his rear, Alexander re- 
turned from Eg)'pt to Asia, and, marching along the Fertile 
Crescent, he crossed the Tigris close by the mounds which had 
long covered the ruins of Nineveh (Fig. 203). Here, near 
Arbela, the Great King had gathered his forces for a last 
stand. The Persians had not studied the progress in the art 
of war made by the Greeks and the Macedonians (§ 681), and 
they were as hopelessly behind the times as China was in her 
war with Japan. They had prepared one new device, a body 
of chariots with scythes fastened to the axles and projecting 
on each side. But the device failed to save the Persian army. 
Although greatly outnumbered, the Macedonians crushed the 
Asiatic army and forced the Great King into ignominious flight. 
In a few days Alexander was established in the winter palace 
of Persia in Babylon (§ 274). 

As Darius fled into the eastern mountains he was stabbed 
by his own treacherous attendants (330 B.C.). Alexander rode 



Alexander the Great 



435 




Fig. 203. View across the Ruins of Nineveh to the Plain 

WHERE Alexander the Great overthrew the Last Army 

OF THE Persian Empire 

We are supposed to be standing on the roof of a house in the modern 
town of Mosul (see plan, p. 154) and looking eastward across the Tigris 
to the ruins of Nineveh, with mound of Kuyunjik, containing the palaces 
of Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, directly before us. Past this mound 
(compare plan, p. 154) runs the road from Mosul to Arbela, about 
30 miles east. These ruins must have been much like this when Alex- 
ander marched past them, less than three hundred years after the city 
was destroyed. Somewhere in the plain toward Arbela, Alexander won 
his last battle with the Persians (§ 697). Although no systematic clear- 
ance of all the chief buildings, such as the French and Germans have 
accomplished at Sargonburg (Khorsabad), Assur, and Babylon, has ever 
been done here, a great many important monuments have been dug 
out, like the library of Assurbanipal (§ 226) 



Up with a few of his officers in time to look upon the body of 698. Death 

, , r I r f . 1 of Darius III 

the last of the Persian emperors, the lord of Asia, whose vast (330 b.c.) ; 

realm had now passed into his hands. He punished the mur- jord^ofthe 

derers and sent the body with all respect to the fallen ruler's ancient East 



43^ 



Ancie7tt Times 



699. Alexan- 
der captures 
the Persian 
royal cities 







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Fig. 204. A Corner of the Court of 
THE Palace of Darius I at Susa, cap- 
tured BY Alexander the Great (as 

RESTORED BY PiLLET) 

The remarkable French excavations at Susa 
discovered the wonderful relief of Naram-Sin 
(Fig. 89), and the shaft bearing the code of 
Hammurapi (Fig. 93). At the same time the 
French uncovered the ruins of the palace 
built by Darius I in the days of Marathon 
and finished later under Xerxes at the time 
of Salamis, a hundred and fifty years before 
Alexander captured Susa. The French archi- 
tect's restoration shows the Persian em- 
peror and his attendants coming forth into a 
court of the palace. We see the gorgeous 
glazed-brick decorations along the base of 
the wall, showing lines of Persian soldiers, as 
in Fig. 113. It must have looked just as we 
see it here, when Alexander entered it for 
the first time, to take possession of the dead 
Persian emperor's magnificent residence 



mother and sister, to 
whom he had extended 
protection and hospi- 
tality. Thus at last 
both the valley of the 
Nile and the Fertile 
Crescent, the homes 
of the earliest two 
civilizations, whose 
long and productive 
careers we have al- 
ready sketched, were 
now in the hands of 
a European power 
and under the control 
of a newer and higher 
civilization. Less than 
five years had passed 
since the young Mace- 
donian had entered 
Asia. 

Although the Mace- 
donians had nothing 
more to fear from the 
Persian arms, there 
still remained much 
for Alexander to do in 
order to establish his 
empire in Asia. On 
he marched through 
the original little king- 
dom of the Persian 
kings, whence Cyrus, 
the founder of the 
Persian Empire, had 



Alexander the Great 437 

victoriously issued over two hundred years before (see § 258). 
He stopped at Susa (Fig. 204) and then passed on to visit the 
tomb of Cyrus (Fig. 115), near Persepolis. Here he gave a 
dramatic evidence of his supremacy in Asia by setting fire to 
the Persian palace (Fig. 116) with his own hand, as the Persians 
had once done to Miletus and to the temples on the Athenian 
Acropolis. It was but a symbolical act, and Alexander ordered 
the flames extinguished before serious damage was done. 

After touching Ecbatana in the north, and leaving behind 700. Alex- 
the trusted Parmenio in charge of the enormous treasure of paigns^in^^" 
gold and silver, accumulated for generations by the Persian t!?^ ^^^ 
kings, Alexander again moved eastward. In the course of the 324 b.c.) 
next five years, while the Greek world looked on in amaze- 
ment, the young Macedonian seemed to disappear in the mists 
on the far-off fringes of the known world. He marched his 
army in one vast loop after another through the heart of the 
Iranian plateau (see map, p. 436), northward across the Oxus 
and the Jaxartes rivers, southward across the Indus and the 
frontiers of India, into the valley of the Ganges, where at last 
the murmurs of his intrepid army forced him to turn back. 

He descended the Indus, and even sailed the waters of the 701. Alexan- 
Indian Ocean. Then he began his westward march again along to Babylon 
the shores of the Indian Ocean, accompanied by a fleet which ^^^ ^'^-^ \ 
he had built on the Indus. The return march through desert of his Eastern 

T 11- 1-11 • • -i campaigns 

wastes cost many lives as the thirsty and ill-provisioned troops 
dropped by the way. Over seven years after he had left the 
great city of Babylon, Alexander entered it again. He had 
been less than twelve years in Asia, and he had carried Greek 
civilization into the very heart of the continent. At important 
points along his line of march he had founded Greek cities 
bearing his name and had set up kingdoms which were to be 
centers of Greek influence on the frontiers of India. From 
such centers Greek art entered India, to become the source of 
the art which still survives there ; and the Greek works of art, 
especially coins, from Alexander's communities in these remote 



433 



Ancient Times 



regions of the East penetrated even to China, to contribute to 
the later art of China and Japan. Never before had East and 
West so interpenetrated as in these amazing marches and cam- 
paigns of Alexander. 



702. Alexan- 
der's scientific 
enterprises 



703. His 
endeavor 
to merge 
European 
and Asiatic 
civilization 



Section 65. International Policy of Alexander: 
ITS Personal Consequences 

During all these unparalleled achievements the mind of this 
young Hercules never ceased to busy itself with a thousand 
problems on every side. He dispatched an exploring expedition 
up the Nile to ascertain the causes of the annual overflow of 
the river, and another to the shores of the Caspian Sea to build 
a fleet and circumnavigate that sea, the northern end of which 
was still unknown. He brought a number of scientific men 
with him from Greece, and with their aid he sent hundreds of 
natural-history specimens home to Greece to his old teacher 
Aristotle, then teaching in Athens. 

Meantime he applied himself with diligence to the organiza- 
tion and administration of his vast conquests. Such problems 
must have kept him v/earily bending over many a huge pile 
of state papers, or dictating his great plans to his secretaries 
and officers. He believed implicitly in the power and superiority 
of Greek culture. He was determined to Hellenize the world 
and to merge Asia w^ith Europe by transplanting colonies of 
Greeks and Macedonians. In his army, Macedonians, Greeks, 
and Asiatics stood side by side. He also felt that he could not 
rule the world as a Macedonian, but must make concessions to 
the Persian world (Plate VI, p. 468). He married Roxana, an 
Asiatic princess, and at a gorgeous wedding festival he obliged 
his officers and friends also to marry the daughters of Asiatic 
nobles. Thousands of Macedonians in the army followed the 
example of their king and took Asiatic wives. He appointed 
Persians to high offices and set them over provinces as satraps. 
He even adopted Persian raiment in part. 



Alexander the Great 439 

Amid all this he carefully worked out a plan of campaign 704. Alexan- 
for the conquest of the western Mediterranean. It included pfans^for the 
instructions for the building of a fleet of a thousand battleships conquest of 

° ^ the western 

with which to subdue Italy, Sicily, and Carthage. It also planned Mediter- 
the construction of a vast roadway along the northern coast 
of Africa, to be built at an appalling expense and to furnish a 
highway for his army from Egypt to Carthage and the Pillars of 
Hercules (Gibraltar). It is here that Alexander's statesmanship 
may be criticized. All this should have been done immediately 
after the destruction of Persia. But Alexander seems not to 
have perceived that he could convert the Mediterranean shores 
into a unified empire under a single ruler much more effectively 
than he could unite and control the scattered and far-reaching 
lands of the remote Orient. 

What was to be his own position in this colossal world-state 705. Deifi- 
of which he dreamed t In such a matter Alexander's imagina- Alexander 
tion was without bounds. He had dreamed of bavins: Mt. Athos ^"^ '^^ ^^?^' 

^ cal necessity 

carved into a vast statue of himself, with a town of ten thousand 
people in his right hand ! And now he planned divinity for 
himself. The will of a god, in so far as a Greek might believe 
in him at all, was still a thing to which he bowed without ques- 
tion and with no feeling that he was being subjected to tyranny. 
Alexander found in this attitude of the Greek mind the solution 
of the question of his own position. Many a great Greek had 
come to be recognized as a god, and there was in Greek belief 
no sharp line dividing gods from men. He would have himself 
lifted to the realm of the gods, where he might impose his will 
upon the Greek cities without offense. This solution was the 
more easy because it had for ages been customary to regard 
the king as divine in Egypt, where he was a son of the Sun- 
god, and the idea was a common one in the Orient. 

In Egypt therefore, seven years before, he had deliberately 706. Alexan- 
taken the time, while a still unconquered Persian army was sS^a— The^ 
awaiting him in Asia, to march with a small following far out desert shrine 
into the Sahara Desert to the oasis shrine of Amon (§ 657 and 



440 



Ancient Times 



Fig. 205). Here in the vast solitude Alexander entered the 
holy place alone. No one knew what took place there; but 
when he issued again he was greeted by the high priest of the 
temple as the son of Zeus-Amon. Alexander took good care 
that all Greece should hear of this remarkable occurrence, but 




Fig. 205. Oasis of Siwa in the Sahara 

In this oasis was the famous temple of the Egyptian god Amon (or 
Ammon) (§ 657). Alexander marched hither from the coast, a. distance 
of some 200 miles, and thence back to the Nile at Memphis, some 350 
miles (see map, p. 436)- A modern caravan requires twenty-one days to 
go from the Nile to this oasis. Such an oasis is a deep depression in 
the desert plateau; the level of the plateau is seen at the tops of the 
cliffs on the right. Its fertility is due to many springs and flowing wells 



the Hellenes had to wait some years before they learned what 

it all meant. 
707. Aiexan- Four years later the young king found that this divinity 
his deification which he claimed lacked outward and visible manifestations. 



by the Greek 
cities of the 
dissolved 
league 



There must go with it some outward observances which would 
vividly suggest his character as a god to the minds of the world 
which he ruled. He adopted oriental usages, among which was 
the requirement that all who approached him on official occa- 
sions should bow down to the earth and kiss his feet. He also 



Alexander the Great 441 

sent formal notification to all the Greek cities that the league 
of which he had been head was dissolved, that he was hence- 
forth to be officially numbered among the gods of each city, 
and that as such he was to receive the State offerings which 
each city presented. 

Thus were introduced into Europe absolute monarchy and 1708. Abso 
the divine right of kings. Indeed, through Alexander there was archv"and 
transferred to. Europe much of the spirit of that Orient which divine right 
had been repulsed at Marathon and Salamis. But these meas- 
ures of Alexander were not the efforts of a weak mind to gratify 
a vanity so drunk with power that it could be satisfied only 
with superhuman honors. They were carefully devised political 
measures dictated by State policy and systematically developed 
step by step for years. 

This superhuman station of the world-king Alexander was 709. Personal 
gained at tragic cost to Alexander the Macedonian youth and sufferedTy^^ 
to the srroup of friends and followers about him (§ 6q^\ Be- Alexander as 

° ^ ^ ^^^ a result of his 

neath the Persian robes of the State-god Alexander beat the deification 

warm heart of a young Macedonian. He had lifted himself to tionaTpdicy 

an exalted and lonely eminence whither those devoted friends 

who had followed him to the ends of the earth could follow 

him no longer. Neither could they comprehend the necessity 

for measures which thus strained or snapped entirely those 

bonds of friendship which linked together comrades in arms. 

And then there were the Persian intruders treated like the 

equals of his personal friends (Plate VI, p. 468), or even placed 

over them ! The tragic consequences of such a situation were 

inevitable. 

Early in those tremendous marches eastward, after Darius's 710. Exe- 
death, Philotas, son of Parmenio, had learned of a conspiracy phiiatas 
against Alexander's life, but his bitterness and estrangement Pa™emo, 

, and their 

were such that he failed to report his guilty knowledge to the friends 
king. The conspirators were all given a fair and legal trial, and 
Alexander himself suffered the bitterness of seeing a whole 
group of his former friends and companions, including Philotas, 



442 



Ancient Times 



condemned and executed in the presence of the army. The 
trusted Parmenio, father of Philotas, still guarding the Persian 
treasure at Ecbatana, was also implicated, and a messenger 
was sent back with orders for the old general's immediate exe- 
cution. This was but the beginning of the ordeal through which 





^-^<^> 



«*1 


Mm^§- 




*'" -^"^"-ix 




Fig. 206. Temple beside the Royal Palace at Babylon 
WHERE Alexander presented Daily Offerings 

The German excavations at Babylon (Fig. 11 1) have found the ruins of 
a temple at the door of the great palace (plan, p. 165), and the director 
of the work, Professor Koldewey, has drawn the above restoration. The 
ancient accounts tell us that Alexander was wont to sacrifice every day 
at this temple on an altar, seen here before the door. He was restoring 
the ruined buildings of Babylon, especially the fallen temple tower, when 
he died. Koldewey found vast masses of earth which Alexander moved 



711. Alexan- 
der slays his 
friend Clitus 



the man Alexander was to pass, in order that the world-king 
Alexander might mount the throne of a god. 

Clitus also, who had saved his life at the Granicus, was filled 
with grief and indignation at Alexander's political course. At 
a royal feast, where these matters came up in conversation, 
Clitus was guilty of unguarded criticisms of his lord and then, 
entirely losing his self-mastery, he finally heaped such unbridled 



Alexander the Great 443 

reproaches upon the king that Alexander, rising in uncontrol- 
lable rage, seized a spear from a guard and thrust it through 
the bosom of the man to whom he owed his life. As we see 
the young king thereupon sitting for three days in his tent, 
speechless with grief and remorse, refusing all food, and pre- 
vented only by his officers from taking his own life, we gather 
some slight impression of the terrible personal cost of Alex- 
ander's state policy. 

Similarly the demand that all should prostrate themselves 712. Exe- 
and kiss his feet on entering his presence cost him the friend- Caiusthenes 
ship of the historian Callisthenes. For, not long afterward, this 
friend was likewise found criminally guilty toward the king in 
connection with a conspiracy of the noble Macedonian pages 
who served Alexander, and he was put to death. He was a 
nephew of the king's old teacher, Aristotle, and thus the friend- 
ship between master and royal pupil was transformed into 
bitter enmity. 

On his return to Babylon (Fig. 206), Alexander was over- 713. Death 
come with grief at the loss of his dearest friend Hephasstion, (323 bS 
who had just died. He arranged for his dead friend one of 
the most magnificent funerals ever celebrated. Then, as he was 
preparing for a campaign to subjugate the Arabian peninsula 
and leave him free to carry out his great plans for the conquest 
of the western Mediterranean, Alexander himself fell sick, prob- 
ably as the result of a drunken debauch, and after a few days 
he died (323 B.C.). He was thirty-three years of age and had 
reigned thirteen years. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 63. What was the policy of Philip of Macedon? What 
new developments in the art of warfare did he introduce ? What did 
the Athenians think about his plans.? Who were the two party 
leaders? What can you say of Demosthenes? What was the out- 
come of Philip's struggle with the Greeks? Who succeeded Philip? 
How was Philip's successor educated? 



444 



Ancient Times 



Section 64. Discuss Alexander's relations with the Greeks. 
What was the outcome of their rebellion against him? As whose 
champion did he contrive to make himself appear ? Describe his con- 
quest of Asia Minor. Where and when did he meet the main Persian 
army? What was the result? What proposal did the Persian king 
make? What advice did Alexander receive? What did he do? 
What conflict arose? How did he dispose of the Phoenician fleet? 

Where did Alexander go after conquering Egypt? Describe his 
next encounter with the Persians. What happened to Darius III? 
What had thus become of Egypt and Western Asia ? To what great 
cities of the Persian Empire did Alexander then go ? What happened 
there ? Describe the remote marches which he now undertook. Can 
you trace them on the map ? What was the result of these marches ? 

Section 6$. What scientific enterprises did Alexander under- 
take? Discuss his plans for merging Greek and Asiatic civilization. 
What further great plans of conquest did he have ? What was to be 
his own position in the new empire? How had he prepared for this 
position while he was in Egypt? How did he require his new 
position to be recognized? What effect had all this upon his friends? 
What happened to Parmenio? to Clitus? to Callisthenes ? Where, 
when, and how did Alexander die? 

Note. The sketch below shows us the lion erected by the Thebans on the 
battlefield of Chaeronea in memory of their fallen citizens. Excavation has dis- 
closed bodies and remains of the great funeral fire. 






>ih^M^"^--*' ;% 




PART IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN 

WORLD IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE 

AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER XX 



THE HEIRS OF ALEXANDER 

Section 66. The Heirs of Alexander's Empire 

Alexander has been well termed *' the Great." Few men of 
genius, and certainly none in so brief a career, have left so in- 
delible a mark upon the course of human affairs. By his remark- 
able conquests, he gained for the Greeks that /^////r^/ supremacy, 
which their civilization^ as we have seen, had long before attained. 

Note. The headpiece above shows a view of modern Antioch in Syria. The 
great decisive battle among tlie generals of Alexander the Great at Ipsus in 
Phrygia in central Asia Minor (301 B.C.) made Seleucus lord of Asia (§ 718). 
He then founded this city of Antioch named after his father, Antiochus (§ 718). 
It finally became a great commercial center (§ 718), a magnificent city of several 
hundred thousand inhabitants. Many appalling earthquakes have destroyed the 
ancient city, and the modem town shown above has less than thirty thousand 
inhabitants. 

44S 



714. Conse- 
quences of 
Alexander's 
death 



44^ Ancient Times 

His death in the midst of his colossal designs was a fearful 
calamity, for it made impossible forever the unification of Hellas 
and of the world by the power of that gifted race which was now 
civilizing the world. Of his line there remained in Macedonia a 
demented half brother and, erelong, Alexander II, the son of 
Roxana, born in Asia after Alexander the Great's death. Con- 
flicts among the leaders at home swept away all these members 
of Alexander's family, even including his mother. 

715. The sue- His generals in Babylonia found the plans for his great West- 
Alexander • ^^^ campaign lying among his papers, but no man" possessed 
their three ^^ genius to carry them out. These able Macedonian com- 

realms m ^ •' ^ 

Europe, Asia, manders were soon involved among themselves in a long and 
tremendous struggle, which slumbered only to break out anew. 
The ablest of them was Alexander's great general, Antigonus, 
who determined to gain control of all the great Macedonian's 
vast empire. Then followed a generation of exhausting wars 
by land and sea, involving the greatest battles thus far fought 
by European armies. Antigonus was killed, and Alexander's 
empire fell into three main parts, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
with one of his generals or one of their successors at the head 
of each. In Europe, Macedonia was in the hands of Antigonus, 
grandson of Alexander's great commander of the same name. 
He endeavored to maintain control of Greece ; in Asia most 
of the territory of the former Persian Empire, was under the 
rule of Alexander's general, Seleucus ; while in Africa, Egypt 
was held by Ptolemy, one of the cleverest of Alexander's 
Macedonian leaders (see map I, p. 448). 

716. The In Egypt, Ptolemy gradually made himself king, and became 
Enmire of ^^^ founder of a dynasty or family of successive kings, whom 
the Ptolemies ^^ ^^ ^j^g Ptolcmies. Ptolemy at once saw that he would be 

constantly obliged to draw Greek mercenary troops from Greece. 
With statesmanlike judgment he therefore built up a fleet which 
gave him the mastery of the Mediterranean. He took up his 
residence at the great harbor city of Alexandria, the city which 
Alexander had founded in the western Nile Delta. As a result 



The Heirs of Alexander 447 

it became the greatest commercial port on the Mediterranean. 
Indeed, for nearly a century (roughly the third century B.C.) 
the eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Syria and from the 
^4^gean to the Nile Delta was an Egyptian sea. As a barrier 
against their Asiatic rivals, the Ptolemies also took possession of 
Palestine and southern Syria. Thus arose an Egyptian empire 
in the eastern Mediterranean like that which we found nearly 
a thousand years earlier in our voyage up the Nile as we visited 
the great buildings of Thebes. Following the example of the 
Pharaohs (Fig. 62), the Ptolemies reached out also into the Red 
Sea with their fleets, and from the Indian Ocean to the Helles- 
pont, from Sicily to Syria, the Egyptian fleets dotted the seas, 
bringing great wealth into the treasury of the ruler (map I, p. 448). 

Although these new Hellenistic rulers of Egypt were Euro- . 717. The 
peans, they did not set up a Greek or European form of state, ental mon- 
They regarded themselves as the successors of the ancient pto^g^L?^ 
Pharaohs, and like them they ruled over the kingdom of the 
Nile in absolute and unlimited power. To three Greek cities 
on the Nile, one of which was Alexandria, they granted the 
right to manage their own local affairs, like a city of Greece. 
Otherwise there were no voting citizens among the people of 
Egypt, and just as in ancient oriental days they had nothing 
whatever to say about the government or the acts of the ruler. 
The chief purpose of the ruler's government was to secure 
from the country as large receipts for his treasury as possible^ 
in order that he might meet the expenses of his great war fleet 
and his army of Greek mercenaries. For thousands of years 
Egypt had been operating a great organization of local officials, 
trained to carry on the business of assessing and collecting 
taxes (Fig. 40), The Greek states possessed no such organiza- 
tion, but the Ptolemies found it ioo useful to be interfered with. 
The tiniest group of mud huts along the river was ruled and 
controlled by such officials. Thus the Macedonians ruling on 
the Nile were continuing an ancient oriental absolute monarchy. 
The example of this ancient form of state, thus preserved, was 



448 



Ancient Times 



718. The 
Asiatic em- 
pire of the 
Seleucids 



719. The 

government 
of the Seleu- 
cids : the 
free cities 



720. The 

government 
of the Seleu- 
cids : the 
kingship 



of far-reaching influence throughout the Mediterranean world, 
and finally displaced the democracies of the Greeks and Romans. 

Although they were not as powerful as the Ptolemies, the 
Seleucids, as we call Seleucus and his descendants, were the 
chief heirs of Alexander, for they held the larger part of his 
empire, extending from the ^gean to the frontiers of India. 
Its boundaries were not fixed, and its enormous extent made it 
very difficult to govern and maintain. The fleet of the Ptole- 
mies hampered the commercial development and prosperity of 
the Seleucids, who therefore found it difficult to reach Greece 
for trade, troops, or colonists. They gave special attention to 
the region around the northeast comer of the Mediterranean 
reaching to the Euphrates, and here the Seleucids endeavored 
to develop another Macedonia. Their empire is often called 
Syria, after this region. Here on the lower Orontes, Seleucus 
founded the great city which he called Antioch (after his father, 
Antiochus). It finally enjoyed great prosperity and became the 
commercial rival of Alexandria and the greatest seat of com- 
merce in the northern Mediterranean (headpiece, p. 445). 

In government the Seleucids adopted a very different plan 
from that of the Ptolemies. Seleucus was in hearty sympathy 
with Alexander's plan of transplanting Greeks to Asia and thus 
of mingling Greeks and Asiatics. He and his son Antiochus I 
founded scores of new Greek cities through Asia Minor, Syria, 
down the Two Rivers, in Persia, and far over on the borders 
of India. These cities were given self-government on the old 
Greek plan ; that is, each city formed a little republic, with its 
local affairs controlled by its own citizens. The great Seleucid 
Empire was thickly dotted with these little free communities. 

To be sure they were under the king, and each such free 
city paid him tribute or taxes. The form which the royal 
authority took was the one, so ancient in the Orient, which 
Alexander had already adopted. The ruler was regarded as 
a god to whom each community owed divine reverence and 
hence obedience. This homage they paid without offense to 




Sequence Map showing the Three Empires of Alexander's Suc- 
cessors FROM THE Third Century b.c. to their Decline at the 
Coming of the Romans after 200 b.c. 



The Heirs of Alexander 449 

their feelings as free citizens. Greek life, with all the noble 
and beautiful things we have learned it possessed, took root 
throughout Western Asia and was carried far into the heart 
of the great continent (see map I, p. 448). 

Compared with her two great rivals in Egypt and Asia, 721. The 
Macedonia in Europe seemed small indeed. The tradition of Empire: re- 
independence still cherished by the Greek states made the Q^eek^stSes 
Macedonian leadership of the Balkan-Greek peninsula a diffi- after Alexan- 

der's death 

cult undertaking. Fighting for their liberty after Alexander's 
death, they had proved too weak to maintain themselves against 
the Macedonian army ; they were forced to submit, and the 
dauntless Demosthenes (§ 684), whose surrender along with 
other democratic leaders was demanded by the Macedonians, 
took his own life (see map I, p. 448). 

While the second Antigonus, grandson of Alexander's general, 722. Antig- 
was struggling to establish himself as lord of Macedonia and st" ps the 
the Greeks, he was suddenly confronted by a new danoer from great Galhc 

' J J ^ invasion and 

the far North and West. From France eastward to the lower becomes king 

. of Macedonia 

Danube, Europe was now occupied by a vast group of Indo- (277 b.c.) 
European barbarians whom we call Celts, or Gauls. They had 
penetrated into Italy after 400 B.C. (§ 813), and a century later 
they were pushing far down into the Balkan Peninsula. By 
280 B.C. they broke through the northern mountains, and 
having devastated Macedonia, they even invaded Greece and 
reached the sacred oracle of the Greeks at Delphi. The bar- 
barian torrent overflowed also into Asia Minor, where a body 
of the invaders settled and gave their name to a region after- 
wards called Galatia. Antigonus II completely defeated the 
barbarians in Thrace and drove them out of Macedonia, of 
which he then became king (277 B.C.). This overwhelming 
flood of northern barbarians deeply impressed the Greeks, and 
le c its mark even on the art of the age, as we shall see (§736). 
After the repulse of the Gauls, Antigonus II took up the 
problem of restoring his empire and establishing his power. 
The Egyptian fleet held complete command of the ^gean and 



450 



Ancient Times 



723. The 

struggle for 
control of 
the eastern 
Mediter- 
ranean 



thwarted him in every effort to control Greece. As Antiochus 
in Asia was suffering from the Egyptian fleet in the same way 
(§ 718), the two rulers, Antigonus and Antiochus, formed an 
alliance against Egypt. The energetic Antigonus built a war 
fleet at vast expense. In a long naval war with the Ptolemies, 
which went on at intervals for fifteen years, Antigonus twice 
defeated the Egyptian fleet. As the lax descendants of the 
earlier Ptolemies did not rebuild the Egyptian fleet, both 
Macedonia and Asia profited by this freedom of the eastern 
Mediterranean. But not long after these Macedonian naval 
victories, trouble arose in Greece, which involved Macedonia in 
another long war with the Greek states. 



Section 6^ . The Decline of Greece 



724. Com- 
mercial de- 
cline of 
Greece 



725. Rise of 
the leagues 



Greece was no longer commercial leader of the Mediter- 
ranean. The victories of Alexander the Great had opened the 
vast Persian Empire to Greek commercial colonists, who poured 
into all the favorable centers of trade. Not only did Greece 
decline in population, but commercial prosperity and the leader- 
ship in trade passed eastward, especially to Alexandria and 
Antioch, and also to the enterprising people of Rhodes and 
the merchants of Ephesus. As the Greek cities lost their 
wealth they could no longer support fleets or mercenary 
armies, and they soon became too feeble to protect themselves. 

They naturally began to combine in alliances or federations 
for mutual protection. Not long after 300 B.C. two such 
leagues were already in existence, one on each side of the 
Corinthian Gulf. On the south side of the gulf was the 
Achaean League and on the north side that of the ^tolians. 
Such a league was in some ways a kind of tiny United States. 
The league had its general, elected each year and commanding 
the combined army of all the cities ; it had also its other officials, 
who attended to all matters of defense and to all relations with 
foreign states outside the league. Each city, however, took care 



and Athens 



The Heirs of Alexander 451 

of its own local affairs, like the levying and collecting of taxes. 
But the two leagues were mostly hostile to each other, and while 
they were successful for a time in throwing off Macedonian 
leadership, it was too late for a general federation of all the 
Greek states, and a United States of the Greeks never existed. 

One reason for this was that Sparta and Athens refused to 726. Sparta 
join these leagues. The Achaeans endeavored to force Sparta 
into their league, but the gifted Spartan king Cleomenes de- 
feated them in one battle after another. His victories and his 
reorganization of the State restored to Sparta some of her old- 
time vigor. The Achaeans were obliged to call on Macedonia 
for help, and in this way Cleomenes was defeated and the 
Spartans were finally crushed. But the Achaean League was 
thereafter subject to Macedonia and never enjoyed liberty 
again. Henceforth the Macedonians were lords of all Greece 
except the ^tolian League. Meantime, while keeping out of 
the leagues, Athens preserved her self-government by securing 
recognition of her neutrality and liberty by the great powers, 
first by Egypt and later by Rome (§884). In spite of her 
political feebleness, Athens was still the home of those high 
and noble things in Greek civilization of which we have already 
learned something and to the further study of which we 
must now turn. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 66. What were the most important consequences of 
Alexander's death? What survivors of his line were there.? What 
did his generals do ? What was the result of a generation of fighting 
among them ? Into what main divisions did Alexander's empire fall 1 
Who ruled these divisions ? What was the policy of the first Ptolemy? 
What was the result? What was at first the extent of Ptolemaic 
power? What kind of government did the Ptolemies establish in 
Egypt ? Would you describe it as oriental or Greek ? Was it finan- 
cially better organized than the Greek states? In what respect? 

What was the extent of the Seleucid Empire at first? How were 
the Seleucids hampered in the Mediterranean ? To what region did 



452 



Ancient Times 



they give special attention ? What great city did they found there ? 
What kind of a government did the Seleucids establish ? What can 
you. say of their Greek cities? Were such cities after all as free 
as Athens had once been? What form did the authority of the 
Seleucids take? 

What was the first serious obstacle in the way of Macedonian 
leadership of the Balkan-Greek peninsula? What did Antigonus II 
accomplish by land? by sea? What was the extent of the Macedo- 
nian Empire (see map I, p. 448)? 

Section d'j. What were now the leading commercial cities of the 
Mediterranean ? In what direction had commercial leadership shifted? 
What was the reason ? What did the Greeks do ? What happened 
to Greece commercially? politically? Did a federation of all the 
Greeks arise? 

Note. The tailpiece below (on the right) is a pleasing example of the Alex- 
andrian art of mosaic — the art of putting together brightly colored bits of glass 
or stone and forming figures or designs with them, as a child puts together a 
puzzle picture. It was an old Egyptian art, which was carried much further by 
the Greeks at Alexandria, where they seem to have learned it, and used it in 
making beautiful pavements (§ 738). They even copied many old Egyptian 
designs, such as this cat (seen below, at right), which was taken from an old 
Egyptian painting (seen below, at left) showing a cat with a bird in her mouth 
and also two more under her forepaws and hindpaws. The greatest example 
of mosaic is the copy of the painting of the battle of Issus (Fig. 202). 








CHAPTER XXI 
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 

Section 68. Cities, Architecture, and Art 

The three centuries following the death of Alexander we call 727. The 
the Hellenistic Age, meaning the period in which Greek civili- Age— su- 
zation spread throughout the ancient world, especially the Orient, ^^l^^^^^^ 
and was itself much modified by the culture of the Orient, language 
Alexander's conquests placed Asia and Egypt in the hands of 
Macedonian rulers who were in civilization essentially Greek. 
Their language was the Greek spoken in Attica. The Orientals 
found the affairs of government carried on in the Greek lan- 
guage (Fig. 207) ; they transacted business with multitudes of 
Greek merchants; they found many Greek books, attracting 
them to read. Attic Greek became the tongue of which every 
man of education must be master. Thus the strong Jewish com- 
munity living at Alexandria now found it necessary to translate 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the old palm-tree capital (on the left), 
with which we are familiar on the Nile (Fig. 56). The Egyptians were the first 
to take the patterns of their decorative art from the forms of plant life. Their 
example has influenced decorative art ever since. Thus this palm-tree column (on 
the right) was borrowed from Egypt by the Hellenistic architects of Pergamum. 
Such an example shows clearly that the idea of taking decorative architectural 
forms from the vegetable world was acquired by the Greeks from abroad, and the 
Corinthian column (Fig, 193) was doubtless suggested in the same way. 

453 



454 



Ancient Times 



the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, in 
order that their educated men might read them. While the 
country people of the East might learn it imperfectly, Attic 




Fig. 207. The Rosetta Stone, bearing the Same Inscription 
IN Greek (C) and Egyptian (^ and BY 

Greek became, nevertheless, the daily language of the great 
cities and of an enormous world stretching from Sicily (Fig. 257) 
and southern Italy eastward on both sides of the Mediterranean 
and thence far into the Orient, 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 455 



Civilized life in the cities was attended with more comfort and 
better equipped than ever before. The citizen's house, if he were 
in easy circumstances, might be built of stone masonry. The 
old central court was now often surrounded on all four sides 
by a pleasing colonnaded porch (Fig. 208). Most of the rooms 
were still small and bare, but the large living room, lighted 
from the court, might be floored with a bright mosaic pavement 
(tailpiece, p. 452), while the walls were plastered and adorned 
with decorative paintings, or even veneered with marble if the 
owner's wealth permitted. The furniture was more elaborate 
and artistic; there might be carpets and hangings; and the 
house now for the first time possessed its own water supply. 

* This famous inscription is in two languages. It was written in Greek 
because the language of the government was Greek and also because 
there were so many Greek-speaking people in Egypt (§ 727). At the 
same time, as the stone was to be a public record, it was necessary that 
it should be read by Egyptians, who knew no Greek, just as in some 
New England factory towns notices are now put up in both English and 
Italian. The document was therefore first written out with pen and ink, 
just as we would do it, in ordinary Egyptian handwriting, called by the 
Egyptians demotic (see Fig. 31 for explanation). This demotic copy was 
then cut on the stone where it occupies the middle {B). The priests 
also wrote out the document in the ancient sacred hieroglyphics, and 
they put this hieroglyphic form in the place of honor at the top of the 
stone {A), where the two corners have since been broken off and lost. 
Both of these two forms, then, are Egyptian — the^upper {A) correspond- 
ing to our print, the lower [B) corresponding to our handwriting. The 
Greek translation of the Egyptian we see at the bottom {C). The stone 
was intended as a public record of certain honors which the Egyptian 
priests were extending to the Greek king, one of the Ptolemies, in 
195 B.C. After it fell down and was broken, the stone had been buried 
in rubbish for many centuries, when the soldiers of Napoleon accident- 
ally found it while digging trenches near the Rosetta mouth of the 
Nile in 1799. Hence it is called the Rosetta Stone. It was afterward 
captured by the British and is now in the British Museum. After 
Champollion had learned the signs in the names of Cleopatra, Ptolemy, 
and some others (Fig. 76), he was finally able to read also the hiero- 
glyphic form of this Rosetta document (^), because the Greek trans- 
lation told him what the hieroglyphic form meant. It was in this way 
that the Rosetta Stone became the key by which Egyptian hieroglyphic 
was deciphered. The stone is a thick slab of black basalt, 2 feet 4^ inches 
wide and 3 feet 9 inches high. 



728. Im- 
proved 
houses and 
increased 
luxury 



456 



Ancient Times 



729. House- 
hold and 
business 
papers pre- 
served in 
Egypt 



The streets also were equipped with drainage channels or pipes, 
a thing unknown in the days of Pericles. 

The daily life of the time has been revealed to us, as it' went on 
in Egypt, in a vast quantity of surviving household documents. 




Fig. 208. Plan of a House of a Wealthy Greek in the 
Hellenistic Age 

The rooms are arranged around a central court {M) which is open to the 
sky. A roofed porch with columns (called a peristyle) surrounds the 
court (cf. Fig. 56). The main entrance is at yV, with the room of the door- 
keeper on the right {A). At the corner is a shop {B). C, Z>, and ^are 
for storage and housekeeping. 7^ is a back-door entry through which 
supplies were delivered ; it contained a stairway to the second floor. 
G was used as a small living room. It had a built-in divan, and the 
entire side toward the peristyle was open. The finest room in the house 
was H, measuring about 16 by 26 feet, with a mosaic floor (tailpiece, 
p. 452), in seven colors, and richly decorated walls. It was lighted by a 
large door and two windows. A' was a little sleeping room, with a large 
marble bath tub ; otherwise the sleeping rooms were all on the second 
floor, which cannot now be reconstructed. / was a second tiny shop. 
This house was excavated by the French on the island of Delos 

Among the common people ordinary receipts and other busi- 
ness memoranda were scribbled with ink on bits of broken 
pottery (Fig. 209), which cost nothing. For more important 
documents, however, a piece of papyrus paper was used 
(Fig. 253). Such papers accumulated in the house, just as our 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 457 




old letters and papers do. In the rainless climate of Egypt 
they have survived in great numbers in the rubbish heaps now 
covering the remains of 
the houses of this age 
(§ 158 and Fig. 211). 
We can read a father's 
or a mother's invitation 
to the wedding of a 
daughter; the letter of 
a father to a worthy son 
absent at school ; the 
repentant confessions of 
a wayward son who has 
run away from home ; 
the assurances of sym- 
pathy from a friend 
when a family has lost a 
son, a father, a mother, 
or a brother. Indeed, 
these documents disclose 
to us the daily intercourse 
between friends and rela- 
tives, just as such matters 
are revealed by letters 
which pass between our- 
selves at the present 
day. Such word-pictures, 
thoughdessly penned by 
long-vanished fingers, 
make the distant life of 
this far-off age seem 
surprisingly near and 
real (Figs. 210 and 253). 

The numerous new cities which this great Hellenistic Age 
brought forth were laid out on a very systematic plan, with the 



Fig. 209. Potsherd Document from 
THE Ruins of an Egyptian Town 

Thousands of personal documents of the 
Hellenistic Age have survived in Egypt, 
written with pen and ink on fragments 
of broken pottery, which cost nothing 
(§ 729). This specimen records a receipt 
for land rent and closes thus : " Eumelos, 
the son of Hermulos, being asked to do 
so, wrote for him, because he himself 
writes too slowly." The giver of the 
receipt probably could not write at all 
and, to avoid this humiliating confession, 
says that he wrote " too slowly " ! The hand 
which Eumelos wrote for him is the rapid- 
running business hand written by the 
Greeks of this age, very different from 
the capital letters which the Greek pottery 
painters made five centuries earlier (head- 
piece, p. 282). A modern college student, 
even though very familiar with printed 
Greek, would be unable to read it 



458 



Ancient Times 



730. Equip- 
ment of Hel- 
lenistic cities; 
rise of secu- 
lar public 
buildings 



731. The 
public build- 
ings of a 
Hellenistic 
city 



streets at right angles and the buildings in rectangular blocks 
(Fig. 212), Recent excavation has uncovered as many as eleven 
metal water pipes side by side crossing a street under the pave- 
ment. But there never was any system of public-street lighting 
in the ancient world. In the public buildings also a great change 
had taken place. In Pericles' time the great state buildings were 
the temples (§ 573). But now the architects of the Hellenistic 
Age began to design large and splendid buildings to house the 
offices of the government. 

These fine public buildings occupied the center of the city 
where in early Greek and oriental cities the castle of the king 




Fig. 210. A Papyrus Letter rolled up and sealed for 
Delivery 

Large numbers of such letters have been found in the rubbish of the 

ancient towns of Egypt (Fig. 253). Their appearance when unrolled 

may be seen in Fig. 253, and the remarkable glimpses into ancient life 

which they afford are well illustrated by the same letter 



had once stood. Near by was the spacious market square, sur- 
rounded by long colonnades ; for the Greeks were now making 
large use of this airy and beautiful form of architecture con- 
tributed by Egypt. Here much private business of the citizens 
was transacted. There was, furthermore, a handsome building 
containing an audience room with seats arranged like a theater. 
The Assembly no longer met in the open air (Fig. 179), but 
held its sessions here, as did the Council also. The architects 
had also to provide gymnasiums and baths, a race track, and 
a theater. Even a small city of only four thousand people, like 
Priene in Asia Minor, possessed all these buildings (Fig. 212), 
besides several temples, one of which was erected by Alexander 
himself. It is very instructive to compare such a little Hellenistic 
city as Priene with a modern town of four thousand inhabitants 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 459 

in America. Our modern houses are much more roomy and 
comfortable, but our ordinary public buildings, like our court- 
houses and town halls, make but a poor showing as com- 
pared with those of little Priene over two thousand years ago. 





Fig. 2[i. Ruins of the Ancient Town of Elephantine on 
AN Island of the Same Name in the Nile 

This island is at the foot of the First Cataract, 5 miles below Philse (Plate 
V, p. 444). When the sun-dried-brick houses which we see here fell 
down (§ 158), they covered the owner's household papers, which in the 
rainless climate of Egypt have been remarkably well preserved (see 
especially Fig. 131). Some of these houses are as old as the twenty- 
seventh century B.C., and the oldest papyrus documents dug out here 
are therefore as old as the Pyramid Age (Fig. 40). Others are much 
later, like the Aramaic papers of the Hebrew colony (Fig. 131). Most 
of the documents found here, however, are from the Hellenistic Age 
or later, and are therefore in Greek, like the young soldier's letter 
(Fig. 253), which was found at another place like this one, or the certifi- 
cate shown in Fig. 267. Near here was Eratosthenes' well (§ 745) 



On one side of the market there opened a building called 732. The 

clerestory 

a basilica, lighted by roof windows, forming a clerestory and the arch 

(Fig. 271), which the Hellenistic architects had seen in Egypt from'th? 

(Fig. 68). At the same time they had become acquainted with Orient 
the arch in Asia Minor, whither it had passed from the Fertile 




460 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 46 1 

Crescent (Figs. 82 and 206). They began occasionally to intro- 
duce arches into their buildings (Fig. 224), although we recall 
that Greek buildings had never before employed the arch. 
Thus the Orient, which had contributed the colonnade to Greek 
architecture (Fig. 167), now furnished two more great forms, 
the clerestory and the arch, but the Greeks never made great 
use of the arch. 

If a litde provincial Greek city like Priene possessed such 733. Alex- 
splendid public buildings, an imperial capital and vast commercial commerce^ 
city like Alexandria was correspondingly more magnificent. In ^"^th^^^^^ 
numbers, wealth, commerce, power, and in all the arts of civili- 
zation, it was now the greatest city of the whole ancient world. 
Along the harbors stretched extensive docks, where ships which 
had braved the Atlantic storms along the coasts of Spain and 
Africa moored beside oriental craft which had penetrated the 

* This litde city when excavated proved to be almost a second Pompeii 
(Fig. 255), only older. Above y^, on the top of the cliff, was the citadel 
with a path leading up to it {B). C shows the masonry flume which 
brought the mountain water down into the town. Entering the town one 
passed through the gate at K, and up a straight street to the little pro- 
vision-market square (Z). Just above the market was the temple of 
Athena (7), built by Alexander himself. Then one entered the spacious 
business market {agora) [M), surrounded by fine colonnades, with shops 
behind them, except on one side (under N) where there was a stately 
hall for business and festive occasions, like the basilica halls which were 
coming in at this time among the Greeks (Fig. 271, 3). Beyond (at N) 
were the offices of the city government, the hall in which the Council 
and Assembly met, and the theater [E). At G was the temple of Isis 
(§ 657), and in the foreground were the gymnasium {P) and the sta- 
dium [Q). The wash-room here still contains- the marble basins and the 
lion-headed spouts from which the water flowed. An attached open hall 
was used for school instruction and lectures (Fig. 224). Above the seats 
of the stadium [Q) was a beautiful colonnade 600 feet long, for pleasure- 
strolling between the athletic events, to enjoy the grand view of the sea 
upon which the audience looked down. The houses fronting directly on 
the street were mostly like the one in Fig. 208 ; but the finer ones 
in the region of the theater [E) and the temple of Athena (7) were of 
well-joined stone masonry and had no shops in front. Around the 
whole city was a strong wall of masonry, with a gate at east {H) and 
west [IC), while along the street outside these gates were the tombs of 
the ancestors as at Athens (headpiece, p. 425). 



462 



Aficient Times 



gates of the Indian Ocean (§ 104) and gathered the wares of 
the vast oriental world beyond. Side by side on these docks 
lay bars of tin from the British Isles with bolts of silk from 




Fig. 213. The Lighthouse of the Harbor of Alexandria 
IN the Hellenistic Age. (After Thiersch) 

The harbor of Alexandria (see corner map, p. 436) was protected by 
an island called Pharos, which was connected with the city by a cause- 
way of stone. On the island, and bearing its name (Pharos), was built 
(after 300 B.C.) a vast stone lighthouse, some 370 feet high (that is, over 
thirty stories, like those of a modern skyscraper). It shows how vast 
was the commerce and wealth of Alexandria only a generation after it 
was founded by Alexander the Great, when it became the New York or 
Liverpool of the ancient world, the greatest port on the Mediterranean 
(§ 733)- The Pharos tower, the first of its kind, was influenced in design 
by oriental architecture, and in its turn it furnished the model for the 
earliest church spires, and also for the minarets of the Mohammedan 
mosques (Fig. 272). It stood for about sixteen hundred years, the 
greatest lighthouse in the world, and did not fall until 1326 a.d. 



China and rolls of cotton goods from India. The growing com- 
merce of the city even required the establishment of government 
banks. From far across the sea the mariners approaching at 
night could catch the gleaming of a lofty beacon shining from 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 463 

a gigantic lighthouse tower (Fig. 213) which marked the 
entrance of the harbor of Alexandria. This wonderful tower, 
the tallest building ever erected by a Hellenistic engineer, was 
a descendant of the old Babylonian temple tower (tailpiece, 
p. 170), with which it was closely related (Fig. 272). 

PYom the deck of a great merchant ship of over four thou- 734. Palace 
sand tons the incoming traveler might look cityward beyond ptolemiest 
the lighthouse and behold the 2:reat war fleet of the Ptolemies °^'^"*/l <^"' 

*=" ^ gin 01 such 

(§ 716) outlined against the green masses of the magnificent P^rks 
royal gardens. Here, embowered in rich tropical verdure, rose 
the marble residence of the Ptolemies, occupying a point of 
land which extended out into the sea and formed the east side 
of the harbor (see map, p. 436). From the royal parks of the 
Persian kings and the villa gardens of the Egyptians (Fig. 51) 
the Hellenistic rulers and their architects had learned to appre- 
ciate the beauty of parks and gardens artistically laid out and 
adorned with tropical trees, lakes, fountains, and sculptured mon- 
uments. Thus the art of landscape gardening, combined with a 
systematically planned city, — an art long familiar to the archi- 
tects of the Orient, — was also being cultivated by Europeans. 

At the other end of the park from the palace were grouped 
the marble buildings of the Royal Museum, with its great 735. The 
library, lecture halls, exhibition rooms, courts and porticoes, E,"gsofAlex- 
and living rooms for the philosophers and men of science who ^"^"^ 
resided in the institution. In the vicinity was the vast temple of 
Serapis, the new State god (§ 764), and further in the city were 
the magnificent public buildings, such as gymnasiums, baths, sta- 
diums, assembly hall, concert hall, market places, and basilicas, 
all surrounded by the residence quarters of the citizens. Unfor- 
tunately, not one of these splendid buildings still stands. Even 
the scanty ruins which survive cannot be recovered, because in 
most cases the modern city of Alexandria is built over them. 

We are more fortunate in the case of Pergamum (map H, 736. Per- 
p. 448), another splendid city of this age which grew up i^tswonderftl 
under Athenian influences (Fig. 214). One of the kings of sculpture 



464 



Ancient Times 



Pergamum defeated and beat off the hordes of Gauls coming 
in from Europe (§ 722). This achievement greatly affected the 
art which Attic sculptors, supported by the kings of Pergamum, 
were creating there. They wrought heroic marble figures of 




Fig. 214. Restoratiox of the Public Buildings of Pergamum, 
A Hellenistic City of Asia Minor. (After Thiersch) 

Pergamum, on the west coast of Asia Minor (see map II, p. 448) became 
a flourishing city-kingdom in the third century B.C. under the successors 
of Alexander the Great (§ 736). The dwelHngs of the citizens were all 
lower down, in front of the group of buildings shown here. These public 
buildings stand on three terraces — lower, middle, and upper. The 
large lower \.&xx2iC& {A) was the main market place, adorned with a vast 
square marble altar of Zeus, having colonnades on three sides, beneath 
which was a long sculptured band (frieze) of warring gods and giants 
(Fig. 217). On the middle terrace (^9), behind the colonnades, was the 
famous library of Pergamum, where the stone bases of library shelves 
still survive. The jcpp er t^rrzce. [C) once contained the palace of the 
king; the temple now there was built by the Roman Emperor Trajan 
in the second century a.d. 



the Northern barbarians in the tragic moment of death in battle 
with a dramatic impressiveness which has never been surpassed 
(Figs. 215 and 2 1 6). Reminiscences of this same struggle with 
the Gauls were also suggested by an enormous band of relief 
sculpture depicting the mythical battle between the gods and the 




Fig. 215. A Gallic Chieftain in Defeat slaying his Wife 
AND Himself 

With one hand he supports his dying wife, and casting a terrible glance 
at the pursuing enemy, he plunges his sword into his own breast. The 
tremendous power of the barbarian's muscular figure is in startling con- 
trast with the helpless limbs of the woman. The beholder feels both 
terror at the wild impetuosity of the Northern barbarian, and at the 
same time involuntary sympathy with his unconquerable courage, which 
prefers death, for himself and his loved one, to shameful captivity 
among the victors {§ 736) 




Figs. 216 and 217. Sculptures of Hellenistic Pergamum 

Above (Fig. 216) is a Gallic trumpeter, as he sinks in death with his 
trumpet at his feet (§ 736). Below (Fig. 217) is a part of the frieze 
around the great altar of Zeus at Pergamum (Fig. 214). It pictures the 
mythical struggle between gods and giants. A giant at the left, whose 
limbs end in serpents, raises over his head a great stone to hurl it at 
the goddess on the right (§ 736) 




Fig. 2 1 8. The Death of Laocoon and his Two Sons 

This famous group was wrought some time in the first century B.C. by 
Agesander of Rhodes and two other sculptors, perhaps his sons. It shows 
the priest Laocoon sinking down upon the altar, by which he had been 
ministering, in a last agonizing struggle with the deadly serpents which 
enfold him and his two sons. It is one of the most marvelous representa- 
tions of human suffering (§ 737) ever created by art, but it does not move 
us with such sympathy as the death of the Gallic chieftain (Fig. 215). 
We should place with these works (Figs. 215-218) the sarcophagus reliefs 
of Alexander (Plate VI, p. 468) and the mosaic picture of the battle of 
Issus (Fig. 202) as the supreme creations of ancient art 




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The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 465 



giants (Fig. 217). This vast work extended almost entirely 
around a colossal altar (Fig. 2 1 4) erected by the kings of Per- 
gamum in honor of Zeus, to adorn the market place of the city. 

It was the works of the Athenian sculptors which had in- 
spired compositions of such tragic and overwhelming power, 
of such violent and thrill- 
ing action, at Pergamum. 
Some of these Athenian 
works have survived. 
They are best illustrated 
by the reliefs on a wonder- 
ful marble sarcophagus, 
showing Alexander the 
Great winning the battle 
of Issus, and again en- 
gaged in a lion hunt 
(Plate VI, p. 468). This 
sculpture of vigorous ac- 
tion in supremely tragic 
moments was also very 
beautifully followed out 
by a group of eminent 
sculptors on the island 
of Rhodes, which was a 
prosperous republic in the 
Hellenistic Age (§ 724). 
Most of their works have 
perished, but those which 
have survived are among 
the most famous works of sculpture from the ancient world. 
One of them depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two 
sons as they are crushed to death in the folds of two deadly 
serpents (Fig. 218). 

The great Greek painters of this age show the same tenden- 
cies as does the sculpture. They loved to depict dramatic and 




737. Athe- 
nian sculp- 
ture: the 
Alexander 
sarcophagus; 
Rhodian 
sculpture ; 
Laocoon 



Fig. 220. Hellenistic Portrait 
Head in Bronze 

This magnificent head of an unknown 
man, with wonderful representation 
of the hair, was recovered from the 
bottom of the sea. The eyes are in- 
laid as in the old Egyptian bronze 
head (Fig. 53). It is now in the 
Museum of Athens 



738. Painting 
and mosaic 



466 



Ancient Times 



739. Por- 
traiture 



tragic incidents at the supreme moment. Their original works 
have all perished, but copies of some of them have survived, 
painted on the walls as interior decorations of fine houses or 
wrought in mosaic as floor pavement. It is the art of mosaic 
which has preserved to us the wonderful painting of Alexander 
charging on the Persian king at Issus, by an unknown Alex- 
andrian painter of the Hellenistic Age (Fig. 202). 

Both the sculptors and painters of this age made wonderful 
progress in portraiture, and their surviving works now begin to 
furnish us a continuous stream of portraits which show us how 
the great men of the age really looked (Fig. 220). Unfortu- 
nately these portraits are all works of the sculptors in stone or 
metal, either as statues and busts or as reliefs, especially on 
medallions and coins ; the portraits executed by the paiiiter 
in colors on wooden tablets have all perished. Alexander's 
favorite painter was Apelles. In one of his portraits of Alex- 
ander, the horse which the king was riding was said to have 
been painted with such lifelikeness that on one occasion a 
passing horse trotted up to it and whinnied. Later examples 
of this art of portrait painting have survived attached to 
mummies in Egypt (Plate VIII, p. 654). 



Section 69. Inventions and Science ; Libraries 
AND Literature 



740. Mechan- 
ical progress 
and practical 
inventions 



The keen and wide-awake intelligence of this wonderful age 
was everywhere evident, but especially in the application of 
science to the work and needs of daily life. It was an age 
of inventions, like our own. An up-to-date man would install an 
automatic door opener for the doorkeeper of his house, and a 
washing machine which delivered water and mineral soap as 
needed. On his estate olive oil was produced by a press oper- 
ating with screw pressure. Outside the temples the priests set 
up automatic dispensers of holy water, while a water sprinkler 
operating by water pressure reduced the danger of fire. The 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 467 

application of levers, cranks, screws, and cogwheels to daily 
work brought forth cable roads for use in lowering stone from 
lofty quarries, or water wheels for drawing water on a large 
scale. A similar endless-chain apparatus was used for quickly 
raising heavy stone missiles to be discharged from huge missile- 
hurling war machines, some of which even operated by air 
pressure. As we go to see the " movies," so the people 
crowded to the market place to view the automatic theater, in 
which a clever mechanician presented an old Greek tragedy of 
the Trojan War in five scenes, displaying shipbuilding, the 
launch of the fleet, the voyage, with the dolphins playing in 
the water about the vessels, and finally a storm at sea, with 
thunder and lightning, amid which the Greek heroes promptly 
went to the bottom. Housekeepers told stories of the simpler 
days of their grandmothers, when there was no running water 
in the house and they actually had to go out and fetch it a long 
way from the nearest spring. 

A public clock, either a shadow clock, such as the Egyptian 741. Time 
had had in his house for over a thousand years (Fig. 74), or a calendar 
water clock of Greek invention (Fig. 221), stood in the market 
place and furnished all the good townspeople with the hour of 
the day. The Ptolemies or the priests under them attempted 
to improve the calendar by the insertion every fourth year of a 
leap year with an additional day, but the people could not be 
roused out of the rut into which usage had fallen, and every- 
where they continued to use the inconvenient moon month of 
the Greeks. There was no system for the numbering of the 
years anywhere except in Syria, where the Seleucids gave each 
year a number reckoned from the beginning of their sway. 

The most remarkable man of science of the time was prob- 742. Archi- 
ably Archimedes. He lived in Syracuse, and one of his famous "^^ 
feats was the arrangement of a series of pulleys and levers, 
which so multiplied power that the king was able by turning a 
light crank to move a large three-masted ship standing fully 
loaded on the dock, and to launch it into the water. After 



468 



Ancient Times 



743- The 

Alexandrian 
scientists 



witnessing such feats as this the people easily believed his 
proud boast, " Give me a place to stand on and I will move the 
earth." He devised such powerful and dangerous war machines 
that he greatly aided in defending his native city from capture by 

the Romans (§ 868). 
But Archimedes was 
far more than an 
inventor of practical 
appliances. He was 
a scientific investiga- 
tor of the first rank. 
He was able to prove 
to the king that one 
of the monarch's gold 
crowns was not of 
pure metal, because 
he had discovered the 
principle of determin- 
ing the proportion of 
loss of weight when 
an object is immersed 
in water. He was 
thus the discoverer 
of what science now 
calls specific gravity. 
Besides his skill in 
physics he was also 
the greatest of an- 
cient mathematicians 
(§ 744)- 




Fig. 221. The Town Clock OF Athens 
IN THE Hellenistic Age 

This tower, commonly called the " Tower 
of the Winds," now stands among modern 
houses, but once looked out on the Athenian 
market place (§ 564). The arches at the left 
support part of an ancient channel which 
supplied the water for the operation of a 
water clock in the tower. Such clocks were 
more or less like hourglasses, the flowing 
water filling a given measure in a given time, 
like the sand in the hourglass. This tower 
was built in the last century B.C., when Athens 
was under the control of Rome (§ 884) 



Archimedes was in close correspondence with his friends in 
Alexandria, who formed the greatest body of scientists in the 
ancient world. They lived together at the Museum, where they 
were paid salaries and supported by the Ptolemies. They 
formed the first scientific institution founded and supported by 




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The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 469 

a government Without financial anxieties they could devote 
themselves to research, for which the halls, laboratories, and 
library of the institution were equipped. Thus the scientists 
of the Hellenistic Age, especially this remarkable group at 
Alexandria, became the founders of systematic scientific re- 
search, and their books formed the sum or body of scientific 
knowledge for nearly two thousand years, until the revival of 
science in modern times. 

The very first generation of scientists at the Alexandrian 744. Mathe- 
Museum boasted a great name in mathematics which is still EucTid'and 
famous among us — that of Euclid. His complete system of Archimedes, 
geometry was so logically built up, that in modern England Aristarchus 
Euclid's geometry is still used as a schoolbook — the oldest 
schoolbook in use to-day. Archimedes then, for the first time, 
developed what is now called higher mathematics — certain 
difficult and advanced mathematical processes the knowledge 
of which having in the meantime been lost had to be redis- 
covered in modern times. Along with mathematics much prog- 
ress was also made in astronomy. The Ptolemies built an 
astronomical observatory at Alexandria, and although it was, of 
course, without telescopes, important observations and discov- 
eries were made. An astronomer of little fame named Aristar- 
chus, who lived on the island of Samos, made the greatest of 
the discoveries of this age. He demonstrated that the earth 
and the planets revolve around the sufi. Almost no one adopted 
his conclusion, however, and both the Hellenistic Greeks and all 
ancient scientists of later days wrongly believed that the earth 
was the center around which the sun and the planets revolved 
(§1059). One Hellenistic astronomer at the co'st of immense 
labor, made a catalogue of eight or nine hundred fixed stars, to 
serve as a basis for determining any future changes that might 
take place in the skies. 

Astronomy had now greatly aided in the progress of geog- 745- Era- 
raphy. Eratosthenes, a great mathematical astronomer of Alex- computes 
andria, very cleverly computed the size of the earth by observing the earth 



470 Ancient Times 




Fig. 222. Diagram roughly indicating how the Size of 
THE Earth was first calculated 

The sun standing at noon directly over the First Cataract (line AB) was 
of course visible also at Alexandria. The result was just the same as if 
someone had stood at the First Cataract holding vertically upright a 
surveyor's pole tall enough to be seen from Alexandria. For Eratosthenes 
at Alexandria the sun was like the top of the pole. With his instruments 
set up at Alexandria, therefore, Eratosthenes found that the sun over 
the First Cataract (line AB) was 7^ degrees south of the zenith of his 
instrument at Alexandria (line AC). The lines AB and AC diverge 
7^ degrees at all points, whether in the skies or on earth. Hence Era- 
tosthenes knew that the First Cataract was 7i degrees of the earth's 
circumference from Alexandria ; that is, the distance between Alexan- 
dria and the First Cataract was i\ degrees of the earth's circumference, 
or one fiftieth of its total circumference of 360 degrees. Now the actual 
distance between Alexandria and the First Cataract was supposed to be 
a little less than 500 miles. This distance (500 miles) then was one fiftieth 
of the earth's circumference, giving a few hundred less than 25,000 miles 
for the total circumference of the earth ; and for its diameter about 
7850 miles, which is within 50 miles of being correct 

that when the summer sun, shifting steadily northward, reached 
its farthest north, it shone at noonday straight down to the 
bottom of a well at the First Cataract of the Nile (Fig. 211). 
Tp this notion of the size of the earth, much information had 
been added regarding the extent and the character of the 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 47 1 

inhabited regions reached by navigation and exploration in this 746. Expio- 
age. At home, in Greece, one geographer undertook to meas- ward"^ 
ure the heights of the mountains, though he was without a 
barometer. The campaigns of Alexander in the Far East had 
greatly extended the limits where the known world ended. Bold 
Alexandrian merchants had sailed to India and around its south- 
ern tip to Ceylon and the eastern coast of India, where they 
heard fabulous tales of the Chinese coast beyond. 

In the Far West as early as 500 B.C. Phoenician navigators 747. Explo- 
had passed Gibraltar, and turning southward had probably ward and 
reached the coast of Guinea, whence they brought back mar- p°t5J^ar*n(i 
velous stories of the hairy men whom the interpreters called the tides 
"Gorillas"! A trained astronomer of Marseilles named Pytheas 
fitted out a ship at his own expense and coasted northward 
from Gibraltar. He discovered the triangular shape of the 
island of Britannia, and penetrating far into the North Sea 
he was the first civilized man to hear tales of the frozen 
sea beyond and the mysterious island of Thule (Iceland) on 
its margin. He discovered the influence of the full moon on 
the immense spring tides, and he brought back reports of such 
surprising things that he was generally regarded as a sensational 
fable monger. 

With a greater mass of facts and reports than anyone before 748. Era- 
him had ever had, Eratosthenes was able to write a very full founder of 
geography. His map of the known world (p. 472), including geography, 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, not only showed the regions grouped makes first 

■' 11 "^^P ^*th 

about the Mediterranean with fair correctness, but he was the latitude and 
first geographer who was able to lay out on his map a cross-net °"^^ " 
of lines indicating latitude and longitude. He thus became the 
founder of scientific geography. 

In the study of animal and vegetable life Aristotle and his 749. Botany, 

zoology, 

pupils remained the leaders, and the ancient world never out- anatomy, and 
grew their observations. While their knowledge of botany, '"^ ^^^"^ 
acquired without a microscope, was of course limited and con- 
tained errors, a large mass of new facts was observed and 



472 



Ancient Times 



arranged. For the study of anatomy there was a laboratory in 
Alexandria, at the Museum, which the Ptolemies furnished with 
condemned criminals on whom vivisection was practiced. In 
this way the nerves were discovered to be the lines along which 
messages of pain and pleasure pass to the brain. The brain 
was thus shown to be the center of the nervous system. 
Although such research came very near to discovering the cir- 
culation of the blood, the arteries were still misunderstood to 
De channels for the circulation of air from the lungs. Alexandria 



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750. Earliest 
state libraries 
of the Greeks; 
Alexandrian 
library 



became the greatest center of medical research in the ancient 
world, and here young men went through long studies to train 
themselves as physicians, just as they do at the present day. 

Notwithstanding the popularity of the natural sciences, there 
was now also much study of language and of the great mass of 
older literature. Although the ancient Orient had long before 
known royal libraries (§ 226), the first library founded and sup- 
ported by a Greek government had been formed by the city of 
Heracleia, on the Black Sea, during the childhood of Alexander 
the Great (not long before 350 b. c). Later the kings of Perga- 
mum also founded a very notable library (Fig. 214). All these 
efforts were far surpassed by the Ptolemies at Alexandria. 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 473 

Across the park from their palace they built a library for the 
Museum, where they had finally over half a million rolls. 

The art of cataloguing and managing such a great collection 751. Rise of 
of books had to be taken up from the beginning. A gifted agemenTand 
philosopher and poet named Callimachus was made a librarian cataloguing 
by the first Ptolemy. Callimachus catalogued all the known 
books of value, both by titles and authors, and this first great 
book catalogue filled one hundred and twenty books or sec- 
tions. As the founder of library management he introduced 
many improvements. One of his sayings was, " A big book is 
a big nuisance," by which he probably meant that a book in a 
single long and bulky roll was very inconvenient to handle 
(cf. Fig. 191). Hence he introduced the method of cutting up 
a work into a series of rolls, each roll called a " book," mean- 
ing a ^' part." Thus arose the division of the Homeric poems, 
the history of Herodotus, and other works into " books." 

The immense amount of hand copying required to secure 752. Great 
good and accurate editions of famous works for this library the Aiexan- 
gradually created the new science of publishing correctly old ^n edking'^ 
and often badly copied works. The copies produced by the ?nd publish- 
librarians and scholars of Alexandria became the standard edi- copies) 
tions on which other ancient libraries and copyists depended. 
The Hellenistic world was everywhere supplied with '' Alexan- 
drian editions," and from these are descended most of the 
manuscripts now preserved in the libraries of Europe, from 
which, in turn, have been copied our printed editions of Homer, 
Xenophon, and other great Greek authors. Unfortunately the 
library of Alexandria perished (§ 965), and the earliest example 
of a Greek book which has survived to us is a roll which was 
found in an Egyptian tomb by modern excavators only a few 
years ago (Fig. 223). 

The new art of editing and arranging the text of books natu- 753. Lan- 
rally required much language study. Where two old copies dif- ds?of^dk-^' 
fered, the question would often arise, which one was correct, g^^^^^^^^ 
Many strange and old words needed explan^tionj just as when 



474 Ancient Times 

we read Chaucer, and there were constant questions of spell- 
ing. The Alexandrian scholars therefore began to make diction- 
aries. At the same time grammatical questions demanded more 






/J^^AvK 







Fig. 2 ''.3, A Page from the Earliest Surviving Greek Book 

This book was found lying beside the body of a man buried in an Egyp- 
tian cemetery, and because of the rainless climate of Egypt it has been 
preserved, in spite of its being written on perishable papyrus paper 
(cf. Figs. 58, 131, 253, and 267). What we have called z.page is really a 
column of writing, and the book consisted of a series of such columns 
side by side on the roll (see Fig. 191). This book contains a poem called 
The Pet'siafts, by the Greek poet Timotheos, who died 357 B.C. His 
name (Timotheos) may be seen in the third line from the bottom, at 
the beginning of the line. The poem tells the story of the battle of 
Salamis. This copy of the work was written in the lifetime of Alexander 
the Great. The column shown here is like those on the rolls which once 
filled the Alexandrian library, and shows us how the pages looked over 
which the great men of science there so industriously pored (§ 753) 

and more attention. At last in 120 B.C. a scholar named Diony- 
sius wrote the first Greek grammar. It contained the leading 
grammatical terms, like the names of the parts of speech, which 



The Civilisatio7i of the Hellenistic Age 475 

we still use. As all these terms were explained and conveniently 
arranged in the grammar of Dionysius, his book was used for 
centuries and thus became the foundation of all later grammars 
of the languages of civilized peoples, including our own. Such a 
term as our " subjunctive mode " is simply a translation of the 
corresponding Greek term created by the Hellenistic scholars. 

Literature was to a large extent in the hands of such learned 754. Litera- 
men as those of Alexandria. The great librarian Callimachus 
was a famous poet of the age. These scholars no longer chose 
great and dramatic themes, like war, fate, and catastrophe, as 
the subjects of their writing. They loved to picture such scenes 
as the shepherd at the spring, listening to the music of over- 
hanging boughs, lazily watching his flocks, and dreaming the 
while of some winsome village maid who has scorned his devo- 
tion. Such pictures of country life set in the simplicity and 
beauty of peaceful hillsides, and wrought into melodious verse, 
delighted the cultivated circles of a great world-city like Alexan- 
dria more than even the revered classics of an older day. In 
such verse the greatest literary artist of the age was a Sicilian 
named Theocritus, whose idyls have taken a permanent place 
in the world's hterature for two thousand years. At the same 
time the everyday life of the age was also pictured at the 
theater in a modern form of play, known as the "new comedy." 
With many amusing incidents the townsmen saw their faults 
and weaknesses of character here depicted on the stage, and 
Menander at Athens, the ablest of such play-writers, gained a 
great reputation for his keen knowledge of men and his ability 
to hit them off wittily in clever comedies. 

Section 70. Education, Philosophy, and Religion 

In such a cultivated world of fine cities, beautiful homes, 755. Educa- 
sumptuous public buildings, noble works of art, state libraries Jan! school!"' 
and scientific research, it was natural that education should ^P^ gymna- 

^ Slums 

have made much progress. The elementary schools, oxio.^ private, 



476 



Ancient Times 



756. Influ- 
ence of 
gymnasium 
toward 
higher 
studies 




were now often supported by the State. When the lad had fin- 
ished at the elementary school, his father allowed him to attend 
lectures on rhetoric, science, philosophy, and mathematics in the 
lecture rooms of the gymnasium building. The wall of such a 

hall at Priene (Fig. 224) 



is still scribbled all over 
with the names of the 
boys of more than two 
thousand years ago, who 
thus recorded their per- 
manent claims to certain 
seats near the wall. 

The gymnasium thus 
became a place of help- 
ful intellectual stimulus. 
When the fathers were 
no longer nimble enough 
for athletic games they 
often sat about in the 
colonnades watching the 
contests, or idling in 
groups, discussing the 
last lecture in science or 
the latest discovery in 
the laboratory of the 
Museum. Here many an 
argument in science or 
philosophy might be 
overheard by the young 
fellows, fresh from the gymnasium baths, as they wandered 
out to greet their waiting fathers and wend their way home- 
ward. Such an atmosphere was one to create great interest 
in science and philosophy, and often a youth besought his 
father to give him a few years' higher study at the Museum 
or at Athens. 



Fig. 224. Wall of a Gymnasium 
Lecture Hall at Priene, still 

COVERED with ScHOOLBOYS' NAMES 

This lecture hall opened on the colon- 
nades around the court of the gymnasium 
at Priene (Fig. 2 1 2, P). The smooth blocks 
of marble are scratched with the names of 
hundreds of schoolboys, who heard lec- 
tures and classes here twenty-two hun- 
dred years ago. In order to set up a 
permanent claim to his seat, a boy would 
scratch into the wall the words, " Seat of 
Cleon, the son of Clearchos." When the 
wall was entirely filled with these names, 
the boys evidently mounted on the benches 
and then on the backs of comrades to 
find enough room to write their claims 



The Civilizatio7i of the Hellenistic Age 477 

Furthermore, in the pursuit of a profession, a special training 757. Pro- 
had now become indispensable to a young man's success. Like scientific ^" 
the medical student, the architect now studied his profession and specialization 
bent industriously over books that told him how to erect an 
arch that would be safe and secure, and what were the proper 
proportions for a column. Young fellows who wished to be- 
come engineers studied a host of things in mechanics, like 
bridge-building and devices for moving heavy bodies. It was 
an age of technical training. This specialization in the profes- 
sions was also to be found among the scientists, who now 
specialized each in a particular branch, like astronomy, or mathe- 
matics, or geography. The youth who wished to study science 
turned to the great scientific specialists at the Alexandrian 
Museum. 

As he strolled for the first time through the beautiful gardens 758. The 
and into the Museum building, he found going on there lectures Museum"s"a 
on astronomy, geography, physics, mathematics, botany, zoology, university 
anatomy, medicine, or rhetoric, grammar, and literature. When 
he was sufficiently familiar with the kiiotvn facts about these 
subjects, he could share in the endeavor to discover new facts 
about them. He might cross the court to the halls where the 
cries of suffering animals told him that vivisection was going 
on ; he might climb the tower of the astronomical observatory, 
and sit there night after night at the elbow of some eminent 
astronomer, or assist Eratosthenes at noonday in taking an ob- 
servation of the sun for his computation of the earth's size 
(§ 745). Or he might withdraw to the quiet library rooms and 
assist in making up the lists of famous old books, to be put 
together in Callimachus' great catalogue. If he showed ability 
enough, he might later be permitted to lecture to students him- 
self, and finally become one of its group of famous scientific men. 

On the other hand, Alexandria was not at first interested in 759. The 
philosophy, out of which science had grown (§ 494). Athens t^g Peripa- 
was still the leading home of philosophy. The youth who went ^f J^thens^^ 
there to take up philosophical studies found the successors of 



478 



Ancie7it Times 



Plato still continuing his teaching in the quiet grove of the 
Academy (§ 671), where his memory was greatly revered. 
Plato's pupil Aristotle, however, had not been able to accept 
his master's teachings. After the education of the young Alex- 
ander (§ 687), Aristotle had returned to Athens and established 
a school of his own at the Lyceum (§ 558), where he occupied 
a terrace called the " Walk " "(Greek, peripatos). Here, he 
directed one group of advanced students after another in the 
arrangement and study of the different sciences, like anatomy, 
botany, zoology. All of these groups collected great masses of 
scientific observations, which were arranged under Aristotle's 
guidance. The result was a veritable encyclopedia of old 
and new facts. The work was never completed, and many 
of the essays and treatises which it included have been lost. 
When Aristotle died, soon after the death of Alexander, his 
school declined. 

Aristotle's works formed the greatest attempt ever made in 
ancient times to collect and to state in a clear way the whole 
mass of human knowledge. They never lost their importance 
and they justly gave him the reputation of having possessed the 
♦ greatest mind produced by the ancient world. His works finally 
gained such unquestioned authority in later Europe that in 
medieval times men turned to Aristotle's books for the answer 
to every scientific question. Instead of endeavoring to discover 
new facts in nature for themselves, they turned to Aristotle 
for the solution of every scientific problem. The writings 
of no other man have ever enjoyed such widespread and 
unquestioned authority.^ 

But many Greeks found little satisfaction in the learned 
researches of Plato's Academy and of Aristotle's Peripatetic 
school (from peripatos^ " walk "). They desired some teaching 
Epicureanism which would lead them to a happy and contented frame of mind 
in living, and enable one to live successfully. To meet this 
growing desire two more schools of philosophy arose at Athens. 

1 See Robinson, Medieval and Modem Times ^ pp. 252 ff. 



760. Unri- 
valed au- 
thority of 
Aristotle's 
works 



761. Two 

philosophies 
of practical 
living : Sto- 
icism and 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 479 

The first was founded by an Oriental, a Semite named Zeno, 
born in Cyprus. He taught in the famous old "Painted Porch" 
in the market place of Athens (§ 572). Such a porch was 
called a Stoa^ and Zeno's school was therefore called the Stoic 
school. Zeno taught that there was but one good and that was 
virtue, and but one evil and that was moral wrong. The great 
aim of life should be a tranquillity of soul, which comes from 
virtue, and is indifferent both to pleasure and to pain. His fol- 
lowers were famous for their fortitude, and hence our common 
use of the word ''stoicism" to indicate indifference to suffering. 
The Stoic school was very popular and finally became the great- 
est of the schools of philosophy. The last school, founded by 
Epicurus in his own garden at Athens, taught that the highest 
good was pleasure, both of body and of mind, but always in 
accordance with virtue. Hence we still call a man devoted 
to pleasure, especially in eating, an " epicure." The school of 
Epicurus, too, flourished and attracted many disciples. Men 
later distorted his teachings into a justification for a life of sen- 
sual pleasure. The oriental proverb, '' Eat, drink, and be merry, 
for to-morrow we die," has therefore been commonly applied 
to them. 

These schools lived on the income of property left them by 762. The 
wealthy pupils and friends. The head of the school, with his ASiens^and* 
assistants and followers, lived together in quarters with rooms its historic 
for lectures, books, .and study. The most successful of these 
organizations was that of Aristotle, at least as long as he lived. 
The Museum of Alexandria was modeled on these Athenian or- 
ganizations, and they have also become the model of academies 
of science and of universities ever since. We may regard 
Hellenistic Athens then as possessing a university made up 
of four departments: the Academy, the Lyceum, the Stoa, and the 
Garden of Epicurus. Thus in the day when her political power 
had vanished, Athens had become even more than Pericles had 
hoped she might be. She was not only the teacher of all Greece, 
but she drew her pupils from all parts of the civilized world. 



480 Ancient Times 

763. The fall For such highly educated men the beliefs of Stoicism or 
Greek gods Epicureanism served as their religion. The gods had for such 

men usually ceased to exist, or were explained as merely glori- 
fied human beings. A romance writer of the day, a man named 
Euhemerus, wrote an attractive tale of an imaginary journey 
which he made to the Indian Ocean, where he found a group 
of mysterious islands. There, in a temple of Zeus, he found a 
golden tablet inscribed with a story telling how the great gods 
worshiped by the Greeks were once powerful kings who had 
done much for the civilization of mankind, and when they died 
they had been deified. This story of a novelist of the Hellenistic 
Age was widely believed, but these gods no longer attracted the 
reverence of religiously minded men. Moreover, there was now 
little pressure on any man to keep silence about his beliefs 
regarding the gods. There was great freedom of conscience 
— far more freedom than the Christian rulers of later Europe 
granted their subjects. The teachings of Socrates would no 
longer have caused his condemnation by his Athenian neighbors, 

764. In- The great multitude of the people had not the education 
uiarkyof°^ to understand philosophy, nor the means to attend the philo- 
onentalgods gophical schools. Yet gods in some form they must have. 

With the weakening of faith in the old gods, those of the 
Orient, which we have already seen invading Greek life 
(§ 657), became more and more popular. So the Ptolemies 
introduced as their great State god an oriental deity named 
Serapis, and they built for him a magnificent temple at Alex- 
andria. From Babylonia the mysterious lore of the Chaldean 
astrologers (§§ 238, 239) was spreading widely through the 
Mediterranean. It was received and accepted in Egypt, and 
even Greek science did not escape its influence. Oriental be- 
liefs and oriental symbols were everywhere. Men had long 
since grown accustomed to foreign gods, and they no longer 
looked askance at strange usages in religion. It was in such 
an age as this that Christianity, an oriental religion, passed 
easily from land to land (§ T069). 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 48 1 

Section 71. Formation of a Hellenistic World of 

Hellenic-Oriental Civilization ; Decline of 

Citizenship and the City-State 

It is a great mistake to suppose that Marathon and Salamis 765. Con^ 
once and for all banished the influence of the Orient from the trusfon^of 
Mediterranean, as an impenetrable dam keeps back a body of oriental m- 

' ^ r ^ fluences m 

water. While Alexander's victories and conquests destroyed the the eastern 

Mediter- 

military power of the Orient, the daily life and the civilization of ranean 
the people of the Orient continued to be a permanent force exert- 
ing a steady pressure upon the life of the eastern Mediterranean 
world, in commerce, in form of government, in customs and 
usages, in art, industry, literature, and religion. When Christi- 
anity issued from Palestine, therefore, as we shall see (§ 1067), 
it found itself but one among many other influences from 
the Orient which were passing westward. Thus while Greek 
civilization, with its language, its art, its literature, its theaters 
and gymnasiums, was Hellenizing the Orient, the Orient in the 
same way was exercising a powerful influence on the West 
and was orientalizing the eastern Mediterranean world. In 
this way there was gradually formed an eastern Mediterranean 
world of Hellenic-oriental civilization. 

In this larger world the old Greek dty-citizen, who had made 766. The 
Greek civilization what it was, played but a small part. He felt world"of the 
himself an individual belonging in an international world, a far ?^stem Med- 

^ ^ ' iterranean 

larger world than the city in which he lived. But this larger and its lack 

world brought home no sense of citizenship in it. For in the 

great Hellenistic states there was no such thing as national 

citizenship. The city-citizen had no share in guiding the affairs 

of the great nation or empire of which his city-state was a part. 

It was as if a citizen of Chicago might vote at the election of 

a mayor of the city but had no right to vote at the election of 

a president of the United States. There was not even a name 

for the empire of the Seleucids, and their subjects, wherever 



482 



Ancient Times 



767. The con- 
tributions of. 
the city-state 
and the end 
of its use- 
fulness 



768. Hellen- 
istic world of 
the eastern 
Mediterra- 
nean under 
the power 
of the west- 
ern Mediter- 
ranean 



they went, bore the names of their home cities or countries.^ 
The conception of " native land " in the national sense was 
wanting, and patriotism did not exist. 

The centers of power and progress in Greek civilization had 
been the city-states, but the finest and most influential forces 
operating within the city-state had now disappeared. So, for 
example, the old city gods were gone. Likewise the citizen- 
soldier who defended his city had long ago given way, even 
in Greece, to the professional soldier who came from abroad 
and fought for hire. The Greek no longer stood weapon in 
hand ready to defend his home and his city-community against 
every assault. He found the holding of city offices becoming 
a profession, as that of the soldier had long been. Losing 
his interest in the State, he turned to his personal affairs, 
the cultivation of himself. The patriotic sense of respon- 
sibility for the welfare of the city-state which he loved, and 
the fine moral earnestness which this responsibility roused, 
no longer animated the Greek mind nor quickened it to the 
loftiest achievements in politics, in art, in architecture, in liter- 
ature, and in original thought. The Greek city-states, ifi com- 
petition among themselves, had developed the highest type of 
civilization which the world had ever seen, but in this process 
the city-states themselves had politically perished. In many 
Greek cities only a discouraged remnant of the citizens was 
left after the emigration to Asia (§ 724). The cattle often 
browsed on the grass in the public square before the town 
hall in such cities of the Greeks. Not even their own Hellas 
was a unified nation. 

A larger world had engulfed the old Greek city-states. But 
this Hellenistic world of the eastern Mediterranean had by 
200 B.C. reached a point in its own wars and rivalries when 
it was to feel the iron hand of a great new military power from 
the distant world of the wester?i Mediterranean. At this point, 

1 It was as if the citizens of the United States were termed Bostonians, New 
Yorkers, Philadelphians, Chicagoans, etc. 



The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 483 

therefore (200 b.c), we shall be unable to understand the 
further story of the eastern Mediterranean, until we have 
turned back and taken up the career of the western Mediter- 
ranean world. There in the West for some three centuries the 
city of Rome had been developing a power which was to unite 
both the East and the West into a vast empire including the 
ivhole Mediterranean. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 68. What was the prevalent language of the Hellenistic 
Age.'* How is the Rosetta Stone an example of this fact? Describe 
the improvements in houses. What written documents tell us of this 
age, and how have they been preserved? Describe the new Hellenistic 
cities, especially Priene. What new forms of architecture came in? 
Describe the commerce of Alexandria ; its parks and public buildings. 
Describe the important examples of the sculpture of tragic and 
violent action. What can you say of such subjects in painting? 

Section 69. What can you say of inventions in the Hellenistic 
Age? of improvements in time measurement? of the achievements 
of Archimedes? Tell about the life of the Alexandrian scientists. 
Which of them wrote a geometry that is still in use? What great 
truth did Aristarchus discover? How did Eratosthenes compute the 
size of the earth? Describe the growth of geographical knowledge; 
the world map of Eratosthenes ; the study of animal life and medi- 
cine. What can you say of the rise of libraries ? Who was the first 
great librarian, and what did he do ? What effect had the libraries on 
publishing ? on language study ? Discuss the changes in literature. 

Section 70. Discuss the gymnasium as a source of education. 
What professions could a boy study? How could he take up scien- 
tific study and research? Where did a youth study philosophy? 
What two philosophical schools first arose at Athens? What did 
Aristode do ? What can you say about his rank as a thinker ? Name 
the two later schools of philosophy at Athens. What was their pur- 
pose ? What had happened to the old gods ? 

Section 71. What kind of a world had now grown up in the 
eastern Mediterranean? What can you say of cidzenship there? 
Under what form of state had Greek civilization chiefly developed? 
What had now become of the Greek city-state? What was now to 
become of the Hellenisdc eastern Mediterranean world ? 




CHAPTER XXII 



769. The 

Mediterra- 
nean and its 
shore lands 
form the 
main part 
of the ancient 
world 



THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN WORLD AND THE 
ROMAN CONQUEST OF ITALY 

Section 72. The Western Mediterranean World 

While we have been following the history of the eastern 
Mediterranean and the peoples grouped about it, the story of 
its western shores has largely dropped out of sight. Before 
we turn to this Western world, however, let us endeavor to 
gain a picture of the Mediterranean world as a whole. This 
sea is a very large body of water, almost as long as Europe 

Note. The above headpiece shows an ancient bronze wolf (sixth century b. c), 
wrought by Greek artists in Italy (§ 831), and illustrates the influence of Greek 
civilization in Rome even before 500 b. c. The two infants nourished by the she- 
wolf are later additions put there in accordance with the tradition at Rome that 
the city was founded by these twin brothers named Romulus and Remus. Their 
ancestor, so said the tradition, was ^Eneas (§ 1003), one of the Trojan heroes, who 
had fled from Troy after its destruction (§ 375), and after many adventures had 
arrived in Italy. His son founded and became king of Alba Longa (§ 783). In the 
midst of a family feud among his descendants, these twin boys, the sons of 
the War-god, Mars, were born, and after they had been set adrift in the Tiber by 
the ruling king, they gently ran aground at the base of the Palatine Hill, where 
a she-wolf found and nourished them. When they grew up they returned home 
to Alba Longa, claimed their rights, and eventually founded Rome. Similar 
legends formed all that the Romans knew of their early history through the 
period of the kings (see p. 497, footnote) and far down into the Republic ^ 

484 





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The Western Mediterranemt World 485 

itself. Its length is about twenty-four hundred miles, and laid 
out across the United States, it would reach from New York 
over into California. It is important for us to bear in mind 
that the ancient world was largely made up of the lands sur- 
rounding the Mediterranean. To these shore lands we have 
chiefly to add the Black Sea and the oriental lands on the east. 
The stage of ancient history was then, to a large extent, the 
Mediterranean and its shores. 

Now the Mediterranean is not a single compact body of 770. Division 
water, like one of our Great Lakes. A land bridge made up terranean 
of Italy and Sicily extends almost across this great sea and e^°andT^*' 
divides it into two parts, an eastern and a western basin, western basin 
There are no accepted geographical names for these two 
basins, but we may call them, for convenience, the eastern 
and the western Mediterranean worlds. We have been follow- 
ing the story of civilized men in the eastern Mediterranean 
world; we must now turn back and take up the story of the 
western Mediterranean world also. 

The story of civilization in the easte?m Mediterranean world 771. Spread 
began very early under the leadership of the Orient. On the iromth&east- 
other hand, the peoples. of the western Mediterranean world were ^grra^ean 
too far away to receive from the Orient such strong influences world to the 

backward 

toward civilization. Hence the West had lagged far behind, western Med- 

and much of it had made little advance in civilization since the 

Stone Age life of the Swiss lake-villages. But a study of the 

map (p. 288) shows us that the western Mediterranean world 

is not wholly separated from the eastern, which, with its Greek 

and Hellenistic civilization, overlapped at its western end with 

the western Mediterranean world. Here then, in southern Italy 

and Sicily, we shall see the eastern Mediterranean civilizing 

the western. 

The most important land in the western Mediterranean world 773. Italy : 
in early times was Italy. It slopes westward in the main ; it an/cHmate ^ 
thus faces and belongs to the western Mediterranean world. 
The Italian peninsula, thrusting far out into the sea (see map, 



486 



Ancient Times 



773. Earliest 
migrations 
into Italy 



774. Earliest 
metal in Italy 
and its ori- 
ental names 



p. 484), is nearly six hundred miles long; that is, about half 
again as long as the peninsula of Florida. Italy ^ is not only 
four times as large as Greece, but, unlike Greece, it is not cut 
up by a tangle of mountains into tortuous valleys and tiny 
plains. The main chain of the Apennines, though crossing 
the peninsula obliquely in the north, is nearly parallel with the 
coasts, and many of its outlying ridges are quite so. There are 
larger plains for the cultivation of grain than we find anywhere 
in Greece ; at the same time there is much more room for 
upland pasturage of flocks and herds. A considerably larger 
population can be supported in the plains of Italy than in 
Greece. At the same time the coast is not so cut up and in- 
dented as in Greece; there are fewer good harbors. Hence 
agriculture and live stock developed much earlier than trade. 

The fertile plains and forest-clad slopes of Italy have always 
attracted the peoples of northern Europe to forsake their own 
bleak and wintry lands and migrate to this warm and sunny 
peninsula in the southern sea. By 2000 B.C. the lake-dwellers 
of Late Stone Age Switzerland (§§ 27-34) pushed southward 
through the Alpine passes and occupied the lakes of northern 
Italy. The remains of over a hundredof their pile-supported 
settlements (Fig. 225) have also been found under the soil of 
the Po valley, once a vast morass, which these people reclaimed 
by erecting their pile dwellings further and further out in it. 
The city of Venice, still standing on piles, although it is built 
mostly of stone, is a surviving example of the way the lake- 
dwellers once built their little wooden houses on piles in the 
same region. They had their influence on the later Romans, 
who afterward made their military camps on a plan exactly 
like that of the Po valley pile villages (Fig. 225). 

When these people reached the Po valley, they had already 
received metal, which is found in all their settlements. The 
oriental source of this metal is still evident in the names which 



1 The area of Italy is about 110,000 square miles, about twice as large as 
Illinois, and not quite four times the area of South Carolina. 



The Western Mediterranemt World 



487 



copper and bronze brought with them from the East into Italy. 

Our word " copper " had the form cuprum in Italy, from the 

name of the island 

of Cyprus (ancient 

Cuprus) (see map, 

p. 288), whose rich 

mines supplied the 

Mediterranean lands 

with copper from very 

early times. Our word 

" bronze " is probably 

derived from the first 

part of the name of 

the city of Brondesium 

(later Brundisium, now 

called Brindisi) at the 

back of the heel of 

Italy, where it was so 

near the ^gean that 

it very early received 

bronze from there 

(§ 336). 

While the pile vil- 
lagers were settling 
in the Po valley, the 
tribes forming the 
western end of the 
Indo-European migra- 
tion (Fig. 112) began 
to feel the attractive- 
ness of the warm and 
verdant hills of Italy. 

Probably not long after the Greeks had pushed southward into the 
Greek peninsula (§ 371), the western tribes of Indo-European 
blood had entered the beautiful western Mediterranean world. 




300 400 



the Indo- 
Europeans 
enters Italy 



Fig. 225. Ground Plan of a Prehis- 
toric Pile Village in Northern Italy 

The settlement was surrounded by a moat 775. West- 
{A) nearly 100 feet across, filled with water ^^" ^mg of 
from a connected river (C). Inside the moat 
was an earth wall {B) about 50 feet thick 
at the base. The village thus inclosed 
was about 2000 feet long; that is, four city 
blocks. The whole village, being in the 
marshes of the Po valley, was supported 
on piles, like the lake-villages (Fig. 15). 
The plan and arrangement of streets are 
those of the Roman military camp later 
derived from it 



488 



Ancient Times 



776. Uncivi- 
lized state 
of Italy and 
the West 



777. The 
three Western 
rivals con- 
fronting the 
Italic tribes: 
first, the 
Etruscans 



into which the Italian peninsula extends. They came in succes- 
sive migrations, but the most important group who settled in 
the central and southern parts of the peninsula were the Italic 
tribes, the earliest Italians, Their name, first applied by the 
Greeks to the South, was finally extended to the whole pen- 
insula ; hence the name " Italy." Probably within a few cen- 
turies they had also overflowed into Sicily. 

We remember that the Greeks, in conquering the ^gean, 
took possession of a highly civilized region on the borders of 
the Orient. This was not the case with the Indo-European in- 
vaders of Italy. They found the western Mediterranean world 
still without civilization. It had no architecture, no fine build- 
ings, no fortified cities, only the rudest arts and industries, no 
writing, and no literature. As the Italic tribes fought their way 
into the country the earlier dwellers in Italy must have taken to 
flight before them, as the ^geans fled before the on-coming 
Greeks. Pictures of these early Westerners, the descendants of 
Stone Age Europe, are preserved on the Egyptian monuments 
of the thirteenth century b. c. They took service in the Egyptian 
army and were perhaps the very fugitives who were driven out 
before the Italic invasion of the West. Their weapons were 
huge bronze swords, which were simply enlarged Egyptian dag- 
gers (see tailpiece, p. 519) such as they had long imported. 
Thus these prehistoric Westerners had enough skill in working 
metals to invent the sword,^ which Europe still continues to use. 

Besides the Italic invaders there were in the western Mediter- 
ranean world three rival peoples, all of whom came from the 
eastern. Mediterranean world. While fighting among themselves, 
the Italic peoples suddenly saw landing on the western coast 
of Italy a bold race of sea rovers whom we call the Etrus- 
cans. They were a people whose origin is still uncertain ; they 
probably had an earlier home in western Asia Minor, and the 

1 A curved blade, of one edge only, was known in the Egyptian Empire and 
also in the Assyrian Empire, but it was little used and never became one of the 
recognized arms of an oriental army. The ^7f/(7-edged sword, the descendant of the 
dagger, as used by the Roman army, was of Western origin. 



The Western Mediterranemt World 



489 



Egyptian monuments tell us of their sea raids on the coast of 
the Delta as far back as the thirteenth century B.C., at a time 
when they were perhaps leaving Asia Minor in search of a 
new home in Italy. In any case the Etruscans were settled 
in Italy by 1000 B.C. They thrust back the Indo-European 
tribes, and finally gained control of the west coast of Italy 
from the Bay of Naples almost to Genoa, including much of 




The Four Rival Peoples of the Western Mediterranean: 
Etruscans, Italic Tribes, Greeks, and Carthaginians 



the inland countiy as far back as the Apennines and even into 
the Po valley. They seemed destined to become the final lords 
of Italy, and they continued as an important people of the 
West far down into Roman historVj as we shall see. 

The Carthaginians were the second of the three rivals of 778. Second, 
the Italic tribes. During their great mercantile prosperity 
after 1000 B.C., the Phoenicians carried their commerce far 
into the western Mediterranean, as we have already stated 
(§ 397)- On the African coast opposite Sicily they established 



the Cartha- 
ginians 



490 



Ancient Times 



779. Third, 
the Greeks 



780. The 
Greeks re- 
pulse the 
Carthaginians 
from Sicily 
and the 
Etruscans 
from Great 
Greece 



781. Empire 
of Dionysius 
of Syracuse 
and its fall 



a flourishing commercial city called Carthage, which was before 
long the leading harbor in the western Mediterranean (Fig. 239). 
The Carthaginians soon held the northern coast of Africa west- 
ward to the Atlantic. Besides gaining southern Spain, they 
were also absorbing the islands of the western Mediterranean, 
especially Sicily. 

The Carthaginians were endeavoring. to make the western 
Mediterranean their own, when the Italic peoples saw their 
third rivals invading the West. They were the Greeks. We 
have already followed the expansion of the Greeks as they 
founded their city-states along the coast of southern Italy and 
in Sicily in the eighth century B.C. (§§ 437-443). The strife 
among these city-states made the Greeks of the West as unable 
to unite into a Greek nation as Greece itself had been. The 
strongest of all the western Greek cities was Syracuse, which 
took the lead more than once. We recall how the Athenians 
tried to conquer the West by capturing Syracuse (§ 602). 

Although we have spoken of these three peoples — Etrus- 
cans, Carthaginians, and Greeks — as the three rivals of the 
Italic tribes in the West, these Italic tribes were at first so 
insignificant that the rivalry was long a three-cornered one, with 
the Greeks in Sicily and southern Italy maintaining themselves 
on two fronts against both Carthaginians and Etruscans. We 
remember how in the famous year of Salamis the Greeks of 
Syracuse won a great batde against the Carthaginians (§514) 
and saved Sicily from being conquered by them (480 B.C.). 
Only a few years later it was also Syracuse which met the bold 
Etruscan sea robbers as their fleets appeared in the South, and 
totally defeated them (Fig. 226). The western Greeks therefore 
played an important part in the political situation, first by long 
preventing the Carthaginians from seizing Sicily and southern 
Italy, and second by breaking the sea power of the Etruscans. 

By 400 B.C. Dionysius, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse, was 
building up a powerful empire in Sicily and southern Italy, 
which looked like a permanent union of the western Greeks 



The Western Mediterranea?i World 



491 




as a nation. But the successors of Dionysius were not as effi- 
cient as he. They called in the great philosopher Plato, and 
they attempted to carry out some of his idealistic theories of 
government (§673), but the result was a disastrous collapse of 
the young Syracusan Empire (357-354 B.C.). Plato himself 
expressed the fear that the Greek 
language was then about to die 
out in Sicily, and that the Car- 
thaginians or one of the rising 
Indo-European tribes of Italy 
would triuniph in Sicily. 

Although the western Greeks, 
like the homeland, failed to unite 
in a strong and permanent state, 
the influence of their civilization 
in the West was all the more 
important. Their civilization was 
essentially the same as that which 
we have already studied (Chapters 
XI-XXI). At the very time when 
Syracuse was victoriously beat- 
ing back the Carthaginians and 
Etruscans on two fronts, some of 
the noblest monuments of Greek 
architecture were rising in these 
Western cities (Fig. 219, and Plate 
VII, p. 560). In such wonderful 
buildings as these, great architec- 
ture made its first appearance in the western Mediterranean. 
The same was true of many other contributions of Greek culture 
with which we are now familiar. Thus fifteen hundred years 
after the Italic tribes had first settled in Italy, theie grew up 
on the south of them a wonderful world of civilization, which 
went on growing and developing to reach its highest in that 
Hellenistic culture which brought forth an Archimedes at 



Fig. 226. Etruscan Helmet 
captured by the greeks 
OF Syracuse in their Vic- 
tory OVER THE Etruscans 

AT CUM^ in 474 B.C. 

Hiero, the Greek tyrant of Syra- 
cuse, dedicated this helmet at 
Olympia as part of the spoil 
which he took from the Etrus- 
cans in his great naval victory 
of Cumae (§ 780). It is now in 
the British Museum, and it still 
bears the dedicatory inscription 
placed upon it by the Syracusan 
tyrant nearly twenty-four hun- 
dred years ago 



782. Western 
Greek cities 
bring civili- 
zation into 
the western 
Mediterra- 
nean world 



49' 



Ancient Times 



783. The 
tribes of 
Latium, 
and Alba 
Longa the 
leading 
Latin town 



Syracuse (§ 742). Let us now turn back to follow the career 
of the barbarous Italic tribes of central Italy under the leader- 
ship of Rome, and watch them slowly gaining organization and 
power, and finally civilization, as they are dominated first by the 
Etruscan and then by the Greek culture which we have been 
recalling. 

Section 73. Earliest Rome 

On the south or east bank of the Tiber, which flows into the 
sea in the middle of the west coast of Italy (see map, p. 484), 
there was a group of Italic tribes known as the Latins. In the 



^M 
















Fig. 227. A Glimpse across the Plaix of Latium and the 
Appiax Way to the Distant Alban Mountains 

In the foreground is a short stretch of the Appian Way, the eadiest 
fine road built by the Romans. It extended from Rome southward to 
Capua, and was finally extended to Brundisium. The large round tower 
is a famous tomb, built for a noble Roman lady named Cecilia Metella 

days when the Etruscan sea-raiders first landed on the shores 
north of the Tiber, these Latin tribes had occupied a plain 
(Fig. 227) less than thirty by forty miles,^ that is, smaller than 
many an American county. They called it '' Latium," whence 

1 Latium probably contained something over seven hundred square miles. 



The Western Mediterrajieaji World 



493 



their own name, '' Latins." Like their Italic neighbors they 
lived, scattered in small communities, cultivating grain and pas- 
turing flocks on the upland. Their land was not very fertile, 
and the battle for existence developed hardy and tenacious chil- 
dren of the soil. Once a year they went up to the Alban Mount 
(Fig. 227), where all the Latin tribes united in a feast of their 




Early Latium 



chief god, Jupiter, whose rude mud-brick sanctuary was on the 
mount. Close by was a small town called Alba Longa, whose 
leadership the Latin tribes followed when they were obliged, as 
they very often were, to unite and repel the attacks of their 
hostile neighbors on all sides. They watched very anxiously 
the growth of the flourishing Etruscan towns on the other side 
of the Tiber, and they did what they could to keep the Etrus- 
cans from crossing to the Latin side. 



494 



Ancient Times 



784. The When these Latin peasants needed weapons or tools, the}) 

e^fy^Rome^^ were obliged to carry up a little grain or an ox to a trading 
post on the south side of the Tiber, just above the coast 
marshes, which extended some ten or twelve miles inland from 
the river's mouth. Shallow water at this point, and an island 
(Fig. 228), made an easy crossing of the river, and the metal 
tools of the early settlers had enabled them to build a stanch 




Fig. 228. The Tiber and its Island at Rome 

The Tiber is not a large river, but when swollen by the spring freshets, 
it still sometimes floods a large portion of Rome, doing serious damage. 
The houses which we see on the island are some of them old, but not 
as old as the ancient Rome we are to study. The bridges, however, are 
very old. The one on the right of the island was built of massive stone 
masonry by L. Fabricius in 62 B.C. It has been' standing for over two 
thousand years. Many great Romans, like Julius Caesar, whose names 
are familiar to us, must have crossed this bridge often 



bridge here. Overlooking the bridge was a bold hill called the 
Palatine, and a square stronghold crowning the hill guarded the 
river crossing. Several neighboring hills bore straggling villages, 
but the stronghold on the Palatine was their leader. Here, 
stopped by the shoals and the bridge, moored now and then 
an Etruscan ship which had sailed up the Tiber, the only navi- 
gable river in Italy. On the low marshy ground, encircled by the 
hills, was an open-air market, beside an old cemetery belonging 



The Western Mediterranea?i World 



495 



to the villages (Fig. 229). Here in the Forum, as they called 
this valley market by the cemetery, our Latin peasant could 
meet the Etruscan traders and exchange his grain or his ox for 
the metal tools or weapons which he needed. These were now 
of iron, but he remembered the stories of his fathers, telling 
how all their tools and weapons were formerly of bronze. The 
population of the villages was very mixed — some Latin 
families who had 
taken to trading 
or owned fields 
near by, Etruscan 
traders and land- 
owners, and a few 
oversea strangers 
of various nation- 
alities, with many 
outcasts and refu- 
gees from outly- 
ing communities. 
Such must have 
been the condition 
of the group of vil- 
lages called Rome 
probably as early 
as 1000 B.C. (but 
of. Fig. 229). 

The fears of 
the Latin tribes 
regarding an invasion of the Etruscans were finally realized. 
The Etruscan towns after 800 B.C. stretched far across north- 
ern Italy — a great group of allied city-kingdom, s, each with 
its fortified city. Perhaps as early as 750 B.C. one of their 
princes crossed the Tiber, drove out the last of the line of 
Latin chieftains, and took possession of the stronghold on the 
Palatine. From this place as his castle and palace he gained 




Fig. 229. Grave of Prehistoric Vil- 
lager FOUND UNDER THE FORUM AT ROME 

Excavations under the Forum (plan, p. 500) 
have disclosed a cemetery of graves like this. 
The skeleton which we see here is that of one 
of the prehistoric men who lived in the vil- 
lages on the summits of the neighboring hills, 
later united to form Rome {§ 7S5). The tools, 
weapons, and pottery found in these graves show 
that these people lived not many generations 
after 1000 e.g., in the days when bronze was 
giving way to iron (§ 7S4) 



785. Rome 
seized by 
Etruscans 
(about 
750 B.C.) 



496 



Ancient Times 



control of the villages on the hills above the Tiber, which then 
gradually merged into the city of Rome. These Etruscan kings 
soon extended their power over the Latin tribes of the Plain of 




Fig. 230. A Street of Etruscan Tombs at Ancient Cere 
NOT FAR North of Rome 

The tomb-chamber, or sometimes several such chambers within, con- 
tained a sarcophagus in which the body was laid. It was often accom- 
panied with jewelry of gold and silver, furniture, implements, and 
weapons (Fig. 231), besides beautiful vases (Fig. 164). The walls of the 
chambers were often painted with decorative scenes from the life of 
the Etruscans and from scenes of Greek mythology, learned by the 
Etruscans from their intercourse with the Greeks. The Etruscans 
buried here lived in a strong walled town of which the ruins lie near 
by. Their manufactures, especially in bronze, flourished, and they 
carried on profitable commerce through their harbor town, only a few 
miles below their city. In one of these tombs the name of the de- 
ceased is inscribed on the wall as " Tarkhnas," which can be nothing 
else than Tarquinius, the name preserved in Roman tradition as that of 
the latest kings of Rome 

Latium, and the town of Alba Longa by the Alban Mount, 
which once led the Latins, disappeared. Thus Rome became a 
city-kingdom under an Etruscan king, like the other Etruscan 



The Western Mediterranean World 



497 



cities which stretched from Capua far north to the harbor of 
Genoa. And such it remained for two centuries and a half. 
Although Rome was ruled by a line of Etruscan kings, it must 
be borne in mind 
that the population 
of Latium which 
the Etruscan kings 
governed contin- 
ued to be Latin 
and to speak the 
Latin tongue.^ 

Etruscan ships 
had known Greek 




1 The above pres- 
entation makes . the 
line of early kings at 
Rome (about 750 to 
about 500 B.C.) exclu- 
sively Etruscan. The 
traditional founding of 
Rome not long before 
750 B.C. would then 
correspond to its cap- 
ture and establishment 
as a strong kingdom 
by the Etruscans. We 
possess no written doc- 
uments of Rome for 
this early period. We 
are obliged to make 
our conclusions largely 
on the basis of a study 
of archaeological re- 
mains surviving in 
Rome and Latium and 
vicinity. Had these remains, together with the important elements of Etruscan 
civilization adopted b)^ the Romans, "formed our only evidence, no one would 
ever have suggested any other theory than that the kings of Rome were Etrus- 
can. The later Romans themselves, however, with evident disinclination to be- 
lieve that their early kings had been outsiders, cherished a tradition that their 
kings were native Romans. This tradition, with many picturesque and pleasing 
incidents (headpiece, p. 484), has found a place in literature, and is still widely 
believed. It is possible that there may be some slight measure of truth in this 
tradition, but it is not very probable in view of all the known evidence. 



Fig. 231. Etruscan Chariot of Bronze 

This magnificent Mrork is the finest surviving 
product of Etruscan skill in bronze (§ 787). It 
was found in an Etruscan tomb (Fig. 230) and 
is now in the possession of the Metropolitan 
Museum of New York. It probably dates from 
the sixth century B.C. 



/ 



498 



Ancient Times 



waters since Mycenaean days, and the Etruscans were con- 
stantly trafficking in the Greek harbors. There they learned to 
write their language with Greek letters. Many tombs (Fig. 230) 
containing such inscriptions still survive in Italy. . Although we 
know the letters and can pronounce the Etruscan words, 



787. Etrus- 
cans learn 
Greek indus- 
tries, art, and 
architecture 




Fig. 232. 



A View of the Tiber with the Aventine Hill 
AND the Etruscan Drain 



As we look down the Tiber in this view, we stand not far from our 
former position looking up the river (Fig. 228) (cf. map, p. 500). The 
Aventine Hill is at the left. Along its foot, at the water's edge, ex- 
tend the houses of modern Rome. At this end of this row of houses we 
see the arched opening of the ancient Etruscan sewer, or drain (§ 788), 
which served to drain the Forum under which it passed. The Romans 
called it the Cloaca Maxinia (chief sewer). Although much altered in 
later times, its most ancient portions are probably the oldest surviving 
masonry at Rome 

scholars are still unable to understand them ; nor can the race 
of the Etruscans as yet be determined from them. 

This intercourse with Greece brought in beautiful Greek 
pottery (Fig. 164), and the Etruscans quickly learned to make 
similar decorative paintings. Many such paintings still cover 
the walls of Etruscan tombs and show us how the Etruscans 
looked, the clothing they wore, and the weapons they carried. 



The Western Mediterraneajt World 499 

Having learned to mine copper, they early produced such fine 
work in bronze (Fig. 231) that it even excelled the metal work 
of the Greeks for a time, and they developed a flourishing com- 
merce in this industry. They likewise borrowed a great deal . 
from Grecian architecture, but unlike the Greeks they made 
plentiful use of the arch, with which they had probably become 
acquainted in Asia Minor (Fig. 224). It was the Etruscans 
who introduced the arch into Italy. Their architecture was 
the earliest known in the city of Rome, and always had a 
great influence upon the architecture of the Romans. 

The Etruscan kings introduced great improvements into 788. Rule of 
Rome. The Forum, the low market valley, was often flooded can kings of 
in the rainy season, and they built a heavy masonry drain Rome and 
arched at the top, which carried off the water to the river and sion (about 
m.ade the city much more healthful. This ancient sewer drain 
still survives (Fig. 232). On the hill called the Capitol, between 
the Forum and the Tiber, they built a temple to Jupiter, the 
State god, which survived for centuries. But the cruelty and 
tyranny of the Etruscan rulers finally caused a revolt, led prob- 
ably by the Etruscan nobles themselves, and the kings of Rome 
were driven out. The fugitive king and his followers fled north- 
ward to their kinsmen, to Caere, where Etruscan tombs which 
probably belonged to them still survive (Fig. 230). Thus about 
500 B.C. the career of Rome under kings came to an end ; but 
the two and a half centuries of Etruscan rule left their mark 
on Rome, always afterward discernible in architecture, religion, 
tribal organization, and some other things. 



Section 74. The Early Republic : its Progress 
AND Government 

During this Etruscan period, Greek influences were equally im- 789. Greek 
portant in Latium. Down at the dock below the Tiber bridge, adoptedSn 
ships from the Greek cities of the south were becoming more ^°™^ 
and more common. Long before the Etruscan kings were 



500 



Ancient Times 



driven out, the Roman trader had gradually learned to pick 
out the names of familiar objects of trade in the bills handed 
him by the Greek merchants. Erelong the Roman traders too 
were scribbling memoranda of their own with the same Greek 




4 000 800 1000 
C y Wall 
pt mont um 
'Ay Serv an Wall 



Map of Early Rome showing the Successive Stages 
OF ITS Growth 



letters, which thus became likewise the Roman alphabet, slightly 
changed to suit the Latin language. Thus the oriental alphabet 
was carried one step further in the long westward journey 
which finally made it the alphabet with which this book is 
printed. In the hands of the Carthaginians and Romans 
in the west, and the Arameans (§ 205) on the east, the 



The Western Mediterranean World 



501 



Phoenician alphabet and its descendent alphabets now stretched 
from India to the Atlantic (Fig. 160). 

There had been no Roman ships at the Tiber docks at first, 790. Greek 

but as time passed a Roman mechanic here and there learned sWpbuiidin"g. 

to build a ship like those of the Greeks alon2:side it. As Roman business, 

° money, and 

traffic thus grew, it was found very inconvenient to pay bills measures 

in Rome 





Fig. 233. Specimens of Early Roman Copper Money 

In the time of Alexander the Great (second half of the fourth century B.C.), 
the Romans found it too inconvenient to continue paying their debts in 
goods, especially in cattle (§ 784). They therefore cast copper in blocks, 
each block with the figure of an ox upon it (see A, above), to indicate 
its value. The Roman word for cattle {pectis) was the origin of their 
frequent word for property {feainid) and has descended to us in our 
common word " pecuniary." These blocks were unwieldy, and influenced 
by the Greeks, the Romans then cast large disks of copper {B, above), 
which also were very ponderous, each weighing nearly a pound 
Troy. Hence this coin, called an as^ was divided into twelve smaller 
coins, each called an ounce (Roman uncia), and there were copper 
coins of two, three, four, and six icncias. "When two generations later 
(268 B.C.) the Romans began to coin silver (see Fig. 235), copper was 
no longer used for large payments and the as was reduced in size 
to one sixth its former weight 



with grain and oxen while the Greek merchant at the dock paid 
his bills with copper and silver coins. For a long time instead 
of the oxen themselves, rough bars of copper were used, each 
bearing the figure of an ox (Fig. 233, A). It was not until 
over a hundred and fifty years after the Etruscan kings had 
been driven out that the Romans issued actual copper coins 
(P^ig. 233, ^). Later, as contact with the Greek cities increased, 



502 



Ancie7it Times 



791. Traces 
of Greek 
speech in 
Rome and 
Latium 



792. Greek 
influences — 
religion 



793. Oracles 



the Romans also began to issue silver coins, using as a basis 
the Attic drachma (§ 832). In the same way, too, the Romans 
gradually adopted the oriental measures of length and of 
bulk with which the Greeks measured out to them the things 
they bought. 

Greek speech too began to leave its traces in the Latin speech 
of Rome. The Latin townsmen and peasants learned the Greek 
words for the clothing offered to them for sale, or for household 
utensils and pottery and other things brought in by the Greeks. 
So the Phoenician garment which the Greek merchants called 
kiton (§ 394), the Latin peasants pronounced ktfln (ktoon), and 
in course of time they gave it a Latin ending ic and dropped 
the k^ so that it became our familiar word " tunic." 

But the Greeks also brought in things which could not be 
weighed and measured like produce, from a realm of which 
the Roman was beginning to catch fleeting glimpses. For the 
peasant heard of strange gods of the Greeks, and he was told 
that they were the counterparts or the originals of his own 
gods. For him there was a god over each realm in nature and 
each field of human life : Jupiter was the great Sky-god and 
king of all the gods ; Mars, the patron of all warriors ; Venus, 
the queen of love ; Juno, an ancient Sky-goddess, was protect- 
ress of women, of birth and marriage, while Vesta, too, watched 
over the household life, with its hearth fire surviving from the 
nomad days of the fathers on the Asiatic steppe two thousand 
years before (§ 249) ; Ceres was the goddess who maintained 
the fruitfulness of the earth, and especially the grainfields 
(cf. English " cereal ") ; and Mercury was the messenger of 
the gods who protected intercourse and merchain.d\smg, as his 
name shows. The streets were full of Greek stories regarding 
the heroic adventures of these divinities when they were on 
earth. The Roman learned that Venus was the Greek Aphrodite, 
Mercury was Hermes, Ceres was Demeter, and so on. 

This process was aided by the influence of Greek oracles. 
The oracles delivered by the Greek Sibyl, the prophetess of 



The Western MediteiTanean World 



503 



Apollo of Delphi (Fig. 172), were deeply reverenced iii Italy. 
Gathered in the Sibylline Books, they were regarded by the 
Romans as mysterious revelations of the future. Another 
method of reading the future was brought in by the Etruscans, 
who were able to discover in the liver (Fig. 234) of a sheep 
killed for sacrifice signs which they believed revealed the future. 
This art had been received by the Etruscans from the 




Fig. 234. Bronze Model of a Liver used by the Etruscans 
FOR Divination, after the Old Babylonian Manner 

The surface of the model is divided by lines into sections, forming a 
kind of guiding diagram like the model livers of baked clay employed by 
the Babylonians (Fig. 94). The Etruscans must have received the art 
in the East, presumably in Asia Minor, before they migrated to Italy 

Babylonians (Fig. 94) by way of Asia Minor, whence the 
Etruscans brought it to Italy. 

An art like this appealed to the rather coldly calculating 794. Mechan- 
mind of the Roman. As he looked toward his gods he felt no of^Roman ^ 
doubts or problems, like, those which troubled the spirit of [he^Roman'^ 
Euripides (§ 581). He lacked the warm and vivid imagination mind 
of the Greeks, which had created the beautiful Greek mythology. 
He was inclined to regard acts of worship as the mere fulfill- 
ment of a contract by which the gods must bestow favors if 
the worshiper was faithful in the performance of his duties. 
In religion, therefore, the Roman saw only a list of mechanical 



504 



Ancient Times 



795. Practi- 
cal sagacity 
of the 
Romans 



796. Elective 
consuls re- 
place the 
kings ; the 
Roman 
Republic is 
established 



duties, such as the presentation of offerings, the sacrifice of 
animals, and the like, and such duties were easily fulfilled. 
In accordance with this rather legal conception of religion, he 
was fitted for great achievements in political and legal organ- 
ization, but not for new and original developments in religion, 
art, literature, or discoveries in science. 

Hence it is that in sketching the beginnings of Rome we 
have found no Homer to picture to us in noble verse the heroic 
days of her early struggles. Although less gifted than the 
Greeks, the Romans nevertheless possessed a remarkable abil- 
ity in applying sober and practical common sense, enlightened 
by experience^ to every problem they met. As we shall see, 
the Romans so contrived their government that it was led 
and guided by the combined experience of the ripest and 
most skilled leaders among them. Thus the Roman State was 
never exposed to the momentary whims of an inexperienced 
multitude as in Athens. It was this wisdom and sagacity of 
the Romans in practical affairs which gave them marked 
superiority over the Greeks in such matters. Let us now 
see how Roman political wisdom developed the invincible 
Roman State. 

When the Etruscan kings were driven out of Rome, about 
500 B.C., the nobles, called patricians^ who had been chiefly 
instrumental in expelling them, were in control of the govern- 
ment. But none of their number was able to make himself 
king. Perhaps by compromise with the people, the patricians 
agreed that two of their number should be elected as heads of 
the State. These two magistrates, called consuls^ were both 
to have the same powers, were to serve for a year only and 
ihen give way to two others. To choose them, annual elections 
were held in an assembly of the weapon-bearing men, largely 
under the control of the patricians. Nevertheless, we must call 
this new state a republic, of which the consuls were the presi- 
dents ; for the people had a voice in electing them. But as 
only patricians could serve as consuls, their government was 



The Western Mediterranean World 505 

very oppressive. The people, called the plebs (compare our 
" plebeian "), especially among the Latin tribes, refused to 
submit to such oppression. 

The patricians were unable to get on without the help of the 797- The 
peasants as soldiers in their frequent wars. They therefore fenders of 
agreed to give the people a larger share in the government, by ^ ^ P^°P ^ 
allowing them in their own assembly to elect a group of new 
officials, called tribunes. The tribunes had the right to veto the 
action of any officer of the government — even that of the 
consuls themselves. When any citizen was treated unjustly by 
a consul he had only to appeal to the tribunes, and they could 
rescind the consul's unjust action and even save a citizen from 
sentence of death. The tribunes therefore gained great in- 
fluence, because they could stop the enforcement of any law 
they thought unjust. Later, as government business increased, 
their number was also increased. 

In the beginning it would seem that almost all the business 798. inability 
of government was in the hands of the consuls. They were the to attend to 
commanding generals of the army in war, they had charge of busines^"^^^^ 
the public funds in the treasury, and they were the judges in 
all cases at law. It was difficult to combine all these duties. 
The consuls were often obliged to be absent from Rome for 
long periods while leading the army, and at such times they 
were of course unable to give any attention to cases at law, 
and two citizens having a lawsuit might be obliged to wait until 
the war was over. Much other ordinary business, like that of 
the treasury, demanded more time than the consuls could pos- 
sibly give it. They found it difficult to carry on the volume of 
business which the government required. 

This situation made it necessary to create new officers for 799. Grow- 
various kinds of business. To take care of the government ^^o^emment 
funds, treasury officials called qucestors were appointed. Two ^^^^^^^ 
public officers called censors were required to keep lists of 
the people, to assess the amount of taxes each citizen owed, 
to determine voting rights, and to look after the daily conduct 



5o6 Ancient Times 

of the people and see that nothing improper was permitted. 
Our own use of the word " censor " is derived from these 
Roman officials. For the decision of legal cases a judge called 
a prcetor was appointed to assist the consul, and the number 
of such judges slowly increased. In times of great national 
danger it was customary to appoint some revered and trust- 
worthy leader as the supreme ruler of the State. He was called 
the Dictator, and he could hold his power but a brief period. 
800. Public But a government is called upon to do some other things of 

?he^controi" great importance besides attending to administrative, financial, 
hng power of ^^^ \^gv\ business. Important public questions arise which are 

the patncians ^ r r -1 

not mere items of routine business. Examples of such questions 
are declaring war, restoring peace, and making new laws of all 
sorts. The consuls had great power and influence in all such 
matters, but they were much influenced by a council of patri- 
cians called the Senate (from ILatin senex, meaning "old man"), 
which had existed even as far back as the Etruscan kings, who 
used to call upon the Senate for advice. Now the patricians 
enjoyed the exclusive right to serve as consuls, to sit in the 
Senate, and to hold almost all of the offices created to carry 
on the business of government (§ 799). The power which the 
patricians held, therefore, quite unfairly exceeded that of the 
plebeians. 
8oi. The The tribunes, as we have seen (§ 797), could protect the 

the piebs and people from some injustices, and save their lives if they were 
patricians illegally condemned to death. But they could not secure to the 
citizen all his rights. The tribunes could not recover for the 
cattle of the people the vanished grass in the public pastures, 
when they had been nipped clean by the great herds of the 
patricians. The tribunes could not secure for a citizen the right 
to be elected as consul, or to become a senator, or to marry a 
patrician's daughter. The struggle which had resulted in the 
appointment of the tribunes, therefore, went on — a struggle 
of the common people to win their rights from the wealthy and 
powerful. It was a struggle like that which we have followed 



The Western Mediterranean World 507 

in Athens and the other Greek states, but at Rome it reached 
a much wiser and more successful settlement. The citizens of 
Rome manfully stood forth for their rights, and without fight- 
ing, civil war, or bloodshed they secured them to a large 
extent in the course of the first two centuries after the found- 
ing of the Republic. 

They insisted upon a record of the existing laws in writing, 802. The old 
in order that they might know by what laws they were being to^writingand 
judged. About fifty years after the establishment of the Republic, o^^new^hw" 
the earliest Roman laws were reduced to writing and engraved 
upon twelve tablets of bronze (450 B.C.). But at the same time 
the people demanded the right to share in the making of fiew 
laws, and to possess an assembly of the people, which might 
pass new laws. 

Far back in the days of the kings the people had enjoyed 803. The 
the right to a limited share in the government. To express Roman 
their opinion they gathered in an assembly called the Comitia. b!fbrother. 
It was made up of groups of families or brotherhoods (like the ^oo^s 
Greek brotherhoods, § 385), each called a curia. Hence this aoiata) 
assembly was called the Comitia ciiriata. Each such brother- 
hood assembled and voted by itself, and its decision then counted 
as one vote. A majority of the brotherhoods decided a question. 

In the early days of the Republic, when the frequent wars 804. The 

. ^ • ^ • n y assembly 

kept the people much together m camp, arrayed m their tight- by centuries 
ing hundreds, or " centuries," it easily became customary to call fj^lllata) 
them together by centuries. Thus a new assembly by centuries 
arose, called for this reason the Comitia centiiriata. Owing to 
the expense of arms and equipment, the men of wealth and 
influence in the centuries far outnumbered the poorer classes. 
The assembly by centuries was therefore controlled by the 
wealthy and noble classes ; they were soon electing the consuls, 
and erelong they had deprived the old assembly by brotherhoods 
of all its power. 

At the same time another assembly of the people arose, 
intended to give them an opportunity to transact their own 



5o8 



Ancient Times 



805. The 

tribal 

assembly 

{Comitia 

iributa) 



806. Law- 
making 
power of the 
assemblies 
and resulting 
laws making 
for equality 
of plebs with 
patricians 



807. The 

new nobility 
of former 
magistrates 



plebeian public business concerning solely the common people. 
This third assembly came together by tribes, and it was there- 
fore called the Coviitia tributa, or tribal assembly. In this body 
every man's vote was as good as another's, and as it was pre- 
sided over by the tribunes, elected to protect the people, the 
decisions of this assembly really expressed the will of the people. 

Having shaken off the legal power of the Senate to control 
their action, these two assemblies, the centuriate and the tribal, 
became the lawmaking bodies of the Roman State. Eventually 
the people were also given voting rights in the centuriate assembly 
equal to those of the patricians and the wealthy. As a result the 
people were able to pass laws by which they, especially the last 
two assemblies, gained the right to make laws, and in this 
way the people gradually secured a fairer share of the public 
lands and further social rights. Finally, and most important 
of all, these new laws increased the rights of the people to 
hold office. In the end Roman citizens elected their plebeian 
neighbors as censors and quaestors, as judges and at last 
even as consuls, and they saw men of the people sitting in 
the Senate. 

This progress of the people in power brought with it im- 
portant new developments affecting both society and govern- 
ment. Roman citizens had a deep respect for government and 
for its officials. The Roman consul appeared in public attended 
by twelve men called lidors, bearing the symbols of State 
authority. Each man carried a bundle of rods, suggesting the 
consul's power to scourge the condemned ; and from the midst 
of the rods rose an ax, symbolizing the consul's legal right to 
inflict the death penalty. The other officials of high rank were 
likewise attended by a smaller group of lictors. The consuls 
and all the higher officials wore white robes edged with purple, 
a costume which only these men had the right to wear. When 
a magistrate went out of office he might assume his official 
garment from time to time on feast days. There soon grew up 
a group of once plebeian families, thus distinguished by the 



The Western Mediterranean World 509 

public service of its members, to whom the Roman citizens 
looked up with great respect. When the voters were called 
upon to select their candidates, they preferred members of 
these eminent families, especially for the consulship. A new 
nobility was thus formed, made up of such illustrious families 
and the old patricians. 

Tliis situation directly affected the Senate, the members of 808. The 
which had formerly been appointed from among the patricians gains^con- 
by the consuls. A new law, however, authorized the censors to ^ °^ °^ ^^^ 

■' ' _ ' Senate 

make out the lists of senators, giving the preference to those 
who had been magistrates. Thus the new nobility of ex- 
magistrates, formerly plebeians, entered the Senate, bringing 
in fresh blood from the ranks of the people. 

As a result of these changes the Senate was made up of the 809. The 
three hundred men of Rome who had gained the most experi- ^hTkaS"^ 
ence in government and in public affairs. When the herald's ^,^^P °^^^', 

° ^ the consul 

trumpet echoed from the Forum, and the senators, responding to 
the call, crowded into the modest assembly hall beside the 
Forum and took their seats, the consul called them to order. 
He was president of the Senate, and he and his colleague, the 
other consul, were the heads of the State, with more power 
than any senator possessed. From his chair on the platform the 
consul looked down into the strong faces of wise and sagacious 
men, many of whom had already held his high office and knew 
far more about its duties than he did. Moreover, while he was 
in office for only a year, the men confronting him held their 
seats in the Senate for life, and most of them had been conduct- 
ing public business there for years. The result was that their 
combined influence, operating steadily for many years, was too 
strong for the consul. Instead of telling the senators of his 
own plans and of the laws he desired, he found himself listening 
to the proposals of the Senate and carrying out the will of the 
senators. As a result the consul became a kind of senatorial 
minister, carrying on the government according to instructions 
from the Senate. 



5IO 



Ancient Times 



8io. The 

Senate gains 
control of 
lawmaking 



8ii. The 
Roman 
Senate the 
supreme 
leader of 
the State 



In the matter of lawmaking a similar growth of the Senate's 
influence took place. Although the popular assemblies (§§ 803- 
805) had the right to make laws, it was not in their power to 
propose a new law. They could vote upon it only after it 
had been proposed by a ?nagistmte, especially by one of the 
tribunes, who were the presiding officers of the tribal as- 
sembly. The influence of the Senate on the magistrates was 
such that the magistrates discussed with the senators every 
law to be brought before the assemblies for adoption. The 
tribunes could stop the operation of any law, and hence 
the Senate had become accustomed to consult with them 
before a law was passed. The result was that the tribunes 
were given membership and seats in the Senate, and so 
added to the power and influence of that already powerful 
body. 

By far the larger part of the Roman citizens lived too far 
away to come up to the city and vote. The small minority 
living in Rome, who could be present and vote at the meetings 
of the assemblies, were familiar with the faces of the senators 
and they well knew the wisdom, skill, and experience of these 
old statesmen. They also knew that there was a strong feeling 
of patriotism among the senators, and standing at the open 
doors of the Senate hall they had heard the voice of many 
a gray-haired ex-consul whom they revered, as it rang through 
the Forum, in eloquent support of some patriotic measure 
or in earnest summons to national defense. Feeling too their 
own ignorance of public affairs, the Roman citizens were not 
unwilling that important public questions should be settled by 
the Senate. Thus the Roman Senate became a large com- 
mittee of experienced statesmen, guiding and controlling the 
Roman State. They formed the greatest council of rulers 
which ever grew up in the ancient world, or perhaps in any 
age. They were a body of aristocrats, and their control of 
Rome made it an aristocratic state, in spite of its republican 
form. We are now to watch the steady development and 



The Western Mediterranean World 511 

progress of Roman power (see. map, p. 516) under the wise and 
stable leadership of the Senate. We should bear in mind, how- 
ever, that the Senate's power was a slow growth, continuing 
during the wars and conquests which we are now to follow. 

Section 75. The Expansion of the Roman Republic 
AND THE Conquest of Italy 

•It was a tiny nation which began its uncertain career after 812. The 
the expulsion of the Etruscan kings. The territory of the ^^d^hetrSty 
Roman Republic was the mere city with the adjacent fields ^^*^^ ^°"^^ 
for a very few miles around. On the other side of the Tiber 
lived the dreaded Etruscans, and on the Roman side of the 
river, all around the little republic, lay the lands of the Latin 
tribes (§ 783), who had combined in what was called the Latin 
League (see map, p. 516). The league was independent and 
did not acknowledge itself subject to Rome. But in their own 
struggle with 'their enemies, the Latin tribes found- the leader- 
ship of the city indispensable. The Latin League therefore 
made a perpetual treaty with Rome — a treaty uniting the 
league and the city in a conibinatiori? for mutual defense ''under 
the leadership of Rome. But this arrangemient produced only 
a loose union, not yet forming a unified nation. Nevertheless, 
the Roman Senate gave to the- citizens of Latium privileges in 
Rome about equal to those of Roman citizens, and the Latins 
were therefore ready to fight for the defense of the city whose 
leadership they followed. 

For two generations the new republic struggled for the 813. Early 
preservation of its mere existence. This struggle against the^^pub- 
threatening- enemies on all its frontiers, especially the Etrus- ^truscanT' 
cans, was the motive power which stirred the little nation and italic 

Tr 1 1 T^ neighbors 

to constant effort, to vigorous life, and to steady growth. Fortu- 
nately for the Romans, within a generation after the founda- 
tion of the Republic the fleet of Syracuse utterly destroyed 
the Etruscan fleet (474 b.c.) (Fig. 226). Later the Etruscans. 



512 



Ancient Times 



814. Agri- 
cultural colo- 
nization and 
expansion 
the Roman 
policy 



were attacked in the rear by the Gauls (§722 and Fig. 215), 
who were at this time pouring over the Alpine passes into the 
valley of the Po and laying waste the Etruscan cities of the 
North. This weakening of the Etruscans at the hands of their 
enemies on both north and south probably saved Rome from 
destruction. It enabled the Romans to maintain a ten years' 
siege of Veil, a strong southern fortress of the Etruscans only 
eight miles from Rome, till they captured and destroyed it 
(396 B.C.). At the same time the Italic tribes surrounding 
Latium on the south, east, and north were .constantly invading 
and plundering the fields and pastures of the Latin tribes and 
dircatcning the city. Rome beat off these marauders, and by 
establishing a group of colonies along the coast south of the 
Tiber, formed a buffer against such invasions from the South. 
By 400 B.C. or a little after, the Romans had conquered and 
taken possession of a fringe of new territory on all sides, which 
protected them from their enemies. 

In the new territory thus gained the Romans planted colonies 
of citizens, or they granted citizenship or other valuable privi- 
leges to the absorbed population. Roman peasants, obligated to 
bear Roman arms and having a voice in the government, thus 
pushed out into the expanding borders of* Roman territory. 
This policy of agrimltural expansion steadily and consistently 
followed by the Senate was irresistible, for it gave to Rome 
an ever-increasing body of brave and hardy citizen-soldiers, 
cultivating their own lands, and ready at all times to take up 
the sword in defense of the State which shielded them. The 
Roman policy was thus in striking contrast with the narrow 
methods of the Greek republics, which jealously prevented out- 
siders from gaining citizenship. It was the steady expansion of 
Rome under this policy which in a little over two centuries after 
the expulsion of the Etruscan kings made the little republic on 
the Tiber mistress of all Italy (see map, p. 5 1 6). 

The second century of Roman expansion opened with a fear- 
ful catastrophe, which very nearly accomplished the complete 



The Western Mediten-anean World 5 1 3 

destruction of the nation, in the first two decades after 815. Capture 
400 B.C. the barbarian Gauls, who had been overrunning the Jhe Gauls ^ 
territor)' of the Etruscans (§813), finally reached the lower (382 b.c.) 
Tiber, and the Roman army which went out to meet them was 
completely defeated. The city, still undefended by walls, was 
entirely at their mercy. They entered at once (382 B.C.), 
plundering and burning. Only the citadel on the Capitol hill 
held out against the barbarians. Long afterward Roman tradi- 
tion told how even the citadel was being surprised at night by 
a party of Gauls who clambered up the heights, when the 
sacred geese, kept in a temple close by, aroused the garrison 
by their cackling, and the storming party was repulsed. Wearied 
by a long siege of the citadel the Gauls at length agreed to 
accept a ransom of gold and to return northward, where they 
settled in the valley of the Po. But they still remained a 
serious danger to the Romans. 

As Rome recovered from this disaster, it was evident that 816. Subju- 
the city needed fortifications, and for the first time masonry Latin^tribes 
walls (plan, p. 500) were built around it. This gave the city a of^^e^Lau^n 
strength it had not before possessed. It gained the southern League 
territory of the Etruscans, now much weakened by the inroads 
of the Gauls, and it also seized new possessions in the Cam- 
panian plain. The high-handed manner in which Rome was 
now taking new lands seems to have alarmed even the Latin 
tribes, and they endeavored to break away from the control of 
the powerful walled city. In the two years' war which resulted 
the city was completely victorious, and the Roman Senate 
forced the defeated Latin tribes to break up the Latin League 
(338 B.C.). The Roman Senate then proceeded to make sepa- 
rate treaties with each of the Latin tribes, and did not grant 
them as many privileges as formerly. Rome thus gained the 
undisputed leadership of the Latin tribes, which was at last 
to bring her the leadership of Italy. 

The year 2)2>^ b.c, in which this important event took 
place, is a date to be well remembered, for it also witnessed 



514 



Ancient Times 



817. The 
leadership 
of Greeks 
and Latins 
decided in the 
same year 

(338 B.C.) 



818. The 

new Samnite 
enemy and 
the opening 
of hostiUties 



819. The 
Samnite 
Wars (325- 
290 B.C.) and 
the battle 
of Sentinum 
(295 B.C.) 



the defeat of the Greek cities at the hands of Philip of 
Macedon (§ 685). In the same year, therefore, both the 
Greeks and the Latins saw themselves conquered and falling 
under the leadership of a single state — the Greeks under that 
of Macedonia, the Latins under that of Rome. But in Greece 
that leadership was in the hands of one man who might and 
did perish ; while in Italy the leadership of the Latins was in 
the hands of a whole body of wise leaders, the Roman Senate. 
In .sixty-five years they were now to gain the leadership of 
all Italy (see maps II, III, and IV, p. 516). 

Meantime another formidable foe, a group of Italic tribes 
called the Samnites, had been gaining possession of the moun- 
tains which form the backbone of the Italian peninsula inland , 
from Rome. They had gained some civilization from the 
Greek cities of the South, and they were able to muster a 
large army of hardy peasants, very dangerous in war. But 
they lacked the steadying and continuous leadership of a gov- 
erning city like Rome. Some of them drifted down into the 
plains of Campania (see map, p. 484), where they captured 
Capua, one of the southern outposts of the Etruscans. Within 
forty years after the expulsion of the Gauls, the Samnites were 
in hostile collision with Rome. By 325 B.C. a fierce war broke 
out, which lasted with interruptions for a generation. The 
Romans lost several battles, and in one case were subjected 
by the Samnites to the ordeal of marching '' under the yoke," 
a humiliation which the Romans never forgot.^ 

But the resources of the Roman Senate were not confined 
to fighting. They gained lands and established Roman colonies 
on the east of the Apennines and in the plain of Campania. 
From these new possessions they were able to attack the Sam- 
nites from both sides of the mountains (see map II, p. 516). The 
Samnites attempted a combination of Rome's enemies against 
her. They succeeded in shifting their army northward and 

1 The defeated troops in token of their submission marched under a lance 
supported horizontally on two upright lances and called a " yoke." 



The Western Mediterranean World 515 

joining forces with both the Etruscans and the Gauls. All cen- 
tral and much of northern Italy was now involved in the war. 
In the mountains midway between the upper Tiber and the 
eastern shores of Italy the Roman army met and crushed the 
combined forces of the allies in a terrible battle at Sentinum 
(295 B.C.). This battle decided the future of Italy for over 
two thousand years. It not only gave the Romans possession 
of central Italy, but it made them the leading power in the 
whole peninsula (see map III, p. 516). 

Henceforth the Etruscans were unable to maintain them- 820. Rome 
selves as a leading power. One by one their cities were taken of central 
by the Romans, or they entered into alliance with Rome. The ^^^^ "tTthT 
Gallic barbarians were beaten off, and the stream of Gallic in- Amus River 
vasion which was thus forced back in northern Italy by Rome tinum 
flowed over eastward and southward into the Balkan Peninsula, 
as we have seen (§ 722). The settled Gauls, however, continued 
to hold the Po valley, and the northern boundary of the Roman 
conquests was along the Arnus River, south of the Apennines. 
Southward the resistance of the Samnites was easily crushed 
within five years after the battle at Sentinum. They and the 
other leading peoples of southern Italy, with the exception of 
the Greeks there, were forced to enter the Roman alliance. 
The Romans were supreme from the Arnus to the Greek cities 
of southern Italy (see map III, p. 516). 

The great rivals in the Western world were now the Romans, 821. En- 
the Greeks, and the Carthaginians. As for the home cities of the western 
the Greeks, they were under the successors of Alexander, fight- ^nTte^Snst 
ing among themselves for possession of the fragments of his Rome 
empire (Chap. XX), while Rome was gaining the leadership 
of Italy. As for the western Greek colonies (§§ 440-441) four 
centuries of conflict among themselves had left them still a 
disunited group of cities fringing southern Italy and Sicily. 
They had long been fighting with the Italic tribes and other 
peoples of southern Italy, and a number of the Greek cities 
of the re<Tion had fallen. The survivors, alarmed at the 



I. Italy at the 
Beginning of the 
Roman Republic 

(about 500 B.C.) 




e^hage 






Roman Territory 




6 "^ lOO 150 
X-'/////^ Remap Territory 

Syracuse 




rV. Roman Power 

after the War with 

V V ^ e Pyrrhus (275 B.C.) 







<jti LATIU 




Roman Territory 



Cartjfkge 



Expansion of Roman Power in Italy 



5^6 



The Western Mediterranean World 517 

threatening expansion of Roman power, now made another 
endeavor to unite, and called in help from the outside. 

The leading city of the Greeks in southern Italy was Taren- 822. Pyrrhus 
tum. Unable to secure effective aid from the now declining ancfhis^pkn 
home cities of Greece, the men of Tarentum sent an appeal of forming 

^^ an empire of 

to Pyrrhus, the vigorous and able king of Epirus, just across the western 

(j recks 

from the heel qf Italy. Pyrrhus fully understood the highly 
developed art of war as it had grown up with Epaminondas 
(§ 638) and Philip of Macedon (§ 681). Besides Thessalian 
horsemen, the best cavalry in the world, he had secured from 
the Orient a formidable innovation in the form of fighting 
elephants. With an army of w^ell-trained Greek infantry of 
the phalanx besides, and his well-known talent as a soldier, 
Pyrrhus was a highly dangerous foe. His purpose was to 
form a great nation of the western Greeks in Sicily and Italy. 
Such a nation would have proved a formidable rival of both 
Rome and Carthage. 

On the arrival of Pyrrhus he completely defeated the 823. Thewai 
Romans at Heraclea in 280 B.C., and in the following year ('280-'^'^'^ "^ 
they were routed again. Pyrrhus proceeded in triumph to ^^^ ^-^-^ ' 
Sicily, where he gained the whole island except the Cartha- defeats at 
ginian colony on the outermost western end (Lilybaeum), (28oB.c.)and 
which he could not capture for lack of a fleet. He seemed 
about to succeed in his effort to establish a powerful western 
Greek empire, when he met with serious difficulties. The 
Carthaginians, who saw a dangerous rival rising only a few 
hours' sail from their home harbor, sent a fleet to assist the 
Romans against Pyrrhus. When the ambassador of Pyrrhus 
arrived at Rome with proposals of peace, the Carthaginian fleet 
was at the mouth of the Tiber, and the Roman Senate reso- 
lutely refused to make peace while the army of Pyrrhus occu- 
pied Italian soil. At the same time the Greeks disagreed among 
themselves, as they always did at critical times. Pyrrhus then 
withdrew from Sicily, and finding himself unable to inflict a 
decisive defeat on the Romans, he returned to Epirus. 



Asculum 
(279 B.C.) 



5i« 



Ancie7tt Times 



824. Rome 
in possession 
of the entire 
Italian pen- 
insula; result- 
ing rivalry 
between 
Rome and 
Carthage 



One by one the helpless Greek cities now surrendered to the 
Roman army, and they had no choice but to accept alliance 
with the Romans (see map IV, p. 5 1 6). Thus ended all hope 
of a great Greek nation in the West. In two centuries and 
a quarter (500-275 B.C.) the tiny republic on the Tiber had 
gained the mastery of the entire Italian peninsula south of the 
Po valley (see map IV, p. 516). There were now but two rivals 
in the western Mediterranean world — Rome and Carthage. In 
following the inevitable struggle of these two for the mastery 
of the western Mediterranean world during the next two gen- 
erations, we shall be watching the final conflict between the 
western wings of the two great racial lines, the Semitic and 
the Indo-European (Fig. 112). But before we take up this 
struggle we must learn more about the character and the civili- 
zation of the great Roman power which thus grew up in Italy. 
These men who won the supremacy of Italy for the little 
republic on the Tiber were the first generation of Romans 
about whom sufficient information has survived to make us 
well acquainted with them. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 72. Into what divisions does the Mediterranean fall? 
In which did civilization arise.? Why? Describe Italy. Tell about 
the earliest migrations into Italy and the incoming of metal. W^hat 
Indo-European tribes came into Italy, and when? Did they find, 
civilization there? What weapon had the western Mediterranean 
peoples devised? What three rivals of the Italic tribes came in? 
Tell about their coming. What did the Greeks accomplish against 
the Carthaginians and Etruscans? Did the western Greeks unite 
into a nation ? What did they bring into Italy ? 

Section 73. Describe Latium. What tribes setded there? 
What town first led them? Where was the market of the Latins? 
Who traded there ? Describe the place. What was it called ? Who 
seized it in the eighth century B.C.? What line of kings arose? 
Describe their rule and civilization. 

Section 74. Whence did the Romans gain their alphabet? What 
other Greek influences can you mention? What oriental mode of 



The Western Medite'rranean World 



519 



divination did the Etruscans and the Romans practice? What can 
you say of the religious ideas of the Romans ? Who succeeded the 
Etruscan kings as rulers of Rome ? What magistrates did the people 
elect for their own protection? What great council arose? Who 
had the exclusive right to serve as consuls and to sit in the Senate ? 
Describe the assemblies of the people. Who had the power to make 
laws? What new nobility arose? How did they gain control of the 
Senate ? How did the Senate gain the leadership of the State ? What 
can you say of this leadership ? 

Section 75. What was the relation between Rome and the Latin 
tribes around it? What was happening to the Etruscans after 
500 B.C.? Describe the colonial policy of the Roman Senate. Tell 
about the coming of the Gauls. What happened to the Latin League 
in 338 B.C.? What happened in Greece the same year? Who were 
the Samnites? Tell the story of the Roman struggle with them. 
What battle ended it? When? Were the western Greeks able to 
unite against Rome? What did Tarentum do? Recount the war 
with Pyrrhus. What happened to the Greeks of Italy after the retire- 
ment of Pyrrhus? How long had it taken Rome to gain the leader- 
ship of Italy ? 

Note. The tailpiece below shows us the prehistoric warriors of the western 
Mediterranean in the thirteenth century b.c. Notice the heavy bronze swords 
carried with point up. They are simply elongated Egyptian daggers (Fig. 132 
and § 776). The scene is engraved on the walls of the temple of Abu Simbel in 
Egypt (Fig. 70), built by Ramses II, in whose army these Westerners were 
serving. 



■r 









X'J 



f 







^^o ->*-> 







li^ 







CORNELIV'j LVCIVS KiPlOBAREATVSCNAIVOOPATRt 
P R OCWAT V 5 _F OAT 1 5 VIR _SA P ! E^N^ GVC - .QVaVi f OR /Vl A yiRTVip PA S IS V W 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE SUPREMACY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC IN ITALY AND 
THE RIVALRY WITH CARTHAGE 

Section ^6. Italy under the Early Roman 
Republic 



825. The 
problem of 
making Italy 



826. Self- 
governing 
local com- 
munities 
made allies 



After the leadership of Italy had been gained by Rome, there 
were men still living who could remember the Latin war (ended 
338 B.C.), when Rome had lost even the surrounding fields of 
little Latium. Now, sixty-five years later, the city on the Tiber 
was mistress of all Italy. The new power over a large group 
of cities and states, thus gained within a single lifetime, was 
exercised by the Roman Senate with the greatest skill and 
success. Had Rome annexed all the conquered lands, and en- 
deavored to rule them from Rome, the population of Italy 
would have been dissatisfied, and constant revolts would have 
followed. How, then, was Italy to become a nation, controlled 
by Rome 1 

The Romans began by granting the defeated cities a kind 
of citizenship. It entitled them to all the protection of the 
Roman State in carrying on commerce and business, to all 

Note. The above headpiece represents the beautiful stone sarcophagus of 
one of the early Scipios, found in the family tomb on the Appian Way (Fig. 227). 
It is adorned with details of Greek architecture, which clearly show that it was 
done by a Greek artist (§ 831). Verses in early Latin, on the side of the sar- 
cophagus, contain praises of the departed Scipio. 

520 



The Supremacy of the Roman Republic ijt Italy 521 

the rights of every Roman citizen in the law courts, and, at the 
same time, to social privileges like that of intermarriage. But 
this citizenship did not entitle them to vote. In distant com- 
munities, however, no one felt the lack of this privilege, for in 
order to vote it was necessary to go to Rome. Cities and com- 
munities controlled by Rome in this way were called " allies." 
The protection of the powerful Roman State in canying on 
business and commerce was of itself a veiy valuable advan- 
tage to the allies. They were therefore willing to place their 
troops entirely at the disposal of Rome, and also all their deal- 
ings with foreign peoples; for they still had full control of their 
own local internal affairs, except those of the army. In all this 
Rome wisely granted ^he different cities very different rights, 
and laid upon them highly varied restrictions. Thus no two 
cities were likely to feel the same grievances or make common 
cause against Roman rule of Italy. 

Rome had, however, gradually annexed a good deal of terri- 827. Com- 
tory to pay her war expenses and to supply her increasing num- enjoying full 
bers of citizens with land. Her own full citizens thus occupied ^°^^" '^**^' 
about one sixth of the territory of Italy. It consisted chiefly of 
the region between the Apennine Mountains and the sea, from 
Caere on the north to Capua and Cumae on the south (see 
map, p. 484). It likewise included some important areas in 
the Apennines and on the Adriatic coast. It was furthermore 
Rome's policy to sprinkle Roman colonies through the territory 
of the allies. All Italy was thus more or less dotted with com- 
munities of Roman citizens. By these wise measures Rome 
gained and kept control of Italy. 

Rome thus brought into a kind of unity what we may gco- 828. Lack 
graphically call Italy \ but an examination of its population will °n-Jy in Italy: 
readily show us how far Italy really was from beins: a nation, diversity of 

•' -^ -^ o ' language 

even though controlled by Rome. Besides the Gauls, whose 
territory in the Po valley had not yet been taken over by the 
Romans, were the conquered Etruscans, who occupied a large 
part of northern Italy, In the central region were the Latins 



522 



Ancient Times 



829. Lack 
of national 
unity in Italy; 
no common 
traditions 



830. Italy 
to become 
Latin in 
speech, 
Greek in 
civilization 



and the other Italic tribes. These tribes all spoke related dia 
lects, which were, however, so different that no one tribe could 
understand any of the others. Finally, in the South were the 
Greek cities. There was therefore no common language in 
Italy, even among the Indo-Europeans, and this created a situ- 
ation very different from that in Greece. 

Neither did the peoples of Italy possess any common literary 
inheritance such as the Greeks had in the Homeric poems. 
Nothing in their history, like the Trojan War in that of the 
Greeks (§ 411), had ever given them common traditions. 
Roman organization had created a kind of United States of 
Italy, which might after a long time slowly merge into a nation. 
Meantime these peoples, of course, had no feeling of patriotism 
toward Rome. Speaking different languages, so that they did 
not understand one another when they met, they long remained 
quite distinct. 

In language the future nation was to be Latin, the tongue 
of the ruling city ; geographically it comprised Italy ; politically 
it was Roman.^ Whefi we consider Rome from the point of 
view of civilization^ however, we are obliged to add a fourth 
name. For as time went on, Italy was to become in civilization 
more and more Greek. The Greek cities extended as far north 
as the plains of Campania, where Rome had early taken Capua, 
in size the second city of Italy. In the days of the war with 
Pyrrhus and after, the Roman soldiers had beheld with wonder 
and admiration the beautiful Greek temples in such cities as 
Paestum.(Fig. 219) and Tarentum. Here for the first time they 
saw also fine theaters, and they must have attended Greek plays, 
of which they understood little or nothing. But the races and 
athletic games in the handsome stadium of such a Greek city 
required no interpretation in order to be understood by the 
sturdy Roman soldiers. 



1 Compare the similar application of three names to our own country. Politi- 
cally we are the United States, geographically we are commonly called America, 
while our language is English. ' ~ ' 



The Sitpretnacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 523 




In southern Italy the Romans had taken possession of the 
western fringe of the great Hellenistic world, whose wonderful 
civilization we have already studied (Chap. XXI). The Romans 
at once felt the superiority of this new world of cultivated life, 
which they had entered in southern Italy. When a highborn 
Roman family like that of the Scipios wished to have carved a 
beautiful sarcophagus (stone coffin) for their father, they em- 
ployed a Greek sculptor from the South (headpiece, p. 520). At 
the same time 
the temples of 
Rome began to 
be laid out on 
?Lr\ oblo7ig ground 
plan, like those 
of the Greeks, 
and no longer on 
a square ground 
plan like those 
of the Etruscans. 
As Roman power 
expands we shall 
see this conquest 
of the Romans 
by Greek civilization making greater and greater progress. 

It was as yet chiefly in commerce and in business that Greek 
influences were evident. Greek merchants from' the Southern 
cities now enjoyed Roman protection when they traded in 
Rome. Greek silver money appeared in greater quantities after 
the capture of the Greek cities. Copper coins were no longer 
sufficient for Roman business, and not long after the fall of 
Tarentum, in 268 B.C. (§ 824), Rome issued her first silver coin 
(Fig. 235). Just as Athens had once done (§ 460), so Rome 
now began to feel the influence of money, and a moneyed class, 
largely merchants, arose. They were not manufacturers, as at 
Athens, and Rome never became a great industrial center. 



831. Early 
evidences of 
Greek art and 
architecture 
in Rome 



Fig. 235. A Roman Denarius of Silver 

After the capture of the Greek cities of southern 
Italy, the Romans began the coinage of silver 
(268 B.C.) (see § 832). The large and inconvenient 
as (Fig. 233, B) was no longer necessary for large 
payments, and it was thereafter reduced in size 
to one sixth. Silver was then used for all large 
transactions. On the value of this coin see § 832 



832. Greek 
influence on 
commerce 
and coinage 
of silver at 
Rome ; rise 
of moneyed 
class 



524 



Ancient Times 



833. Com- 
mercial 
expansion 
of Rome 
seaward 



834. Early 
mercantile 
successes of 
the Semites, 
and the foun- 
dation of 
Carthage 



Section yy. Rome and Carthage as 
Commercial Rivals 

The old policy of agricultural expansion (§ 814) had slowly 
brought Rome the leadership withifi Italy. A new policy of 
commercial expansion was to bring her into, conflict with the 
Mediterranean world outside of Italy. The farmers had looked 
no farther than the shores of Italy, but the transactions of the 
Roman merchants reached out beyond those shores. Roman 
ships issuing from the Tiber entered a triangular inclosure of 
the Mediterranean, called the Etruscan Sea. The sides of the 
triangle were formed by Corsica and Sardinia on the west and 
Italy on the east, while on the south the bottom of the triangle 
was formed by Sicily and the Carthaginian coast of Africa. A 
glance at the map (I, p. 552) shows us how Rome and Carthage 
faced each other across this triangular sea, w^here both were 
now carrying on extensive business. 

It was indeed a dangerous rival which now confronted RomiC 
across the Etruscan Sea. In the veins of the Carthaginians 
flowed the blood of those hardy desert mariners of Arabia, the 
Semitic caravaneers (§ 137) who had made the market places 
of Babylon the center of ancient Eastern trade two thousand 
years before Rome ever owned a ship. The fleets of their 
Phoenician ancestors had coursed the Mediterranean in the 
days when the Stone Age barbarians of Italy were eagerl\ 
looking for the merchant of the East and his metal implements 
(§ 328). While Rome was an obscure trading village on the 
Tiber, and before the Greeks ever entered these waters, the 
Phoenician merchants, the earliest explorers of the western 
Mediterranean, had perceived the advantageous position of the 
commanding projection where the African coast thrusts out 
toward Sicily. Here, on the northern edge of the region now 
called Tunis, they had planted the city which had become the 
commercial queen of the western Mediterranean and the most 
powerful rival of Rome (map I, p. 552). 



The Supremacy of the Roman Republic iu Italy 525 

This advantageous situation gave Carthage unrivaled com- 835. Cartha- 
mercial opportunities. Gradually, as her trade carried her in pan^sionln 
both directions, she had gained the coast on both sides — Africa and 

' '^ Spam 

eastward to the frontiers of the Greek city of Gyrene, and 
westward to the Atlantic. Her merchants absorbed southern 
Spain, with its profitable silver mines, and they gained control 
of the import of British tin by way of the Strait of Gibraltar. 
Outside of this strait their settlements extended northward 
along the coast of Spain and southward along the Atlantic 
coast of Africa to the edge of the Sahara. In this direction 
Hanno, one of their fearless captains, explored the coast of 
Africa as far as Guinea (§ 747, and map I, p. 552). 

It was only the incoming of the Greeks (§§ 440-441) which 836. Cartha- 
had prevented the Carthaginians from taking possession of the f/on^>lthe^" 
Mediterranean islands upon which their splendid harbor looked JJgrranean^^^' 
out. They usually held a large part of Sicily, the west end of islands 
which was almost visible from the housetops of Carthage. 
They planted their colonies in the islands of Sardinia and 
Corsica, and they had ports in the Balearic Islands, between 
Sardinia and Spain. They closed the Strait of Gibraltar and 
the ports of the islands to ships froin all other cities. Foreign 
ships intruding in these waters were promptly rammed and 
sunk by Carthaginian warships. 

Unlike Rome, the military power of Carthage, supported by 837. Lack 
the profits from trade, was built up entirely on a basis of money, soldiers at 
with which, as long as she prospered, she could support a large ^o^^^gfcial 
mercenary army. She had no. farmers cultivating their own prosperity 

and a mer- 

land, from whom she could draw an army of citizen-soldiers as cenary army 
did Rome. The rich and fertile region of Tunis just south of 
Carthage had indeed been taken by the Carthaginians from its 
native owners. Here the merchant princes of the city developed 
large and beautiful estates, worked by slaves ; but such lands, 
supporting no small farmers, furnished no troops for the army. 

This was a serious weakness in the organization of the Car- 838. Cartha- 
thaginian state. The rulers of the city never trusted the army, ^^"'^" 



526 Aficient Times 

made up as it was of foreigners, and they always felt some dis- 
trust even toward their own generals, although they were, of 
course, bom Carthaginians. The fear lest the generals should 
endeavor to make themselves kings of Carthage caused much 
friction between the government and the Carthaginian com- 
manders, and was frequently a cause of weakness to the nation. 
Although there were two elective magistrates called Judges 
at the head of the State, Carthage was really governed by a 
group of merchant nobles, a wealthy aristocracy whose mem- 
bers formed a Council in complete control. They were what 
the Greeks called an oligarchy (§ 618); but they were energetic 
and statesmanlike rulers. Centuries of shrewd guidance on their 
part made Carthage a great state, far exceeding in power any 
of the Greek states that ever arose, not excluding Athens. 

839. Car- But Carthage remained in civilization an oriental power. 
civUizadon Wherever her works of art are dug up to-day, they show all 

the earlier limitations of oriental art, and seem to have been 
little influenced by the Greeks. Only in Sicily did Carthaginian 
merchants yield to Greek influence, take up coinage, and issue 
silver money. In Carthage herself they retained the old oriental 
commercial use of bars of precious metal (§ 189). As her busi- 
ness grew, however, her merchants found it necessary to have 
some convenient medium of exchange, and they issued leathern 
money, the earliest predecessor of paper money, stamped with 
the seal of the State, guaranteeing its value. In literature their 
great explorer Hanno (§ 835) wrote an account of his explo- 
ration of the Atlantic coast of Africa ; and Mago, one of their 
statesmen, who organized and developed the great farming dis- 
trict of Tunis, wrote a treatise on agriculture, which the Roman 
Senate had translated into Latin. It became the standard book 
on agriculture in Italy. 

840. The city In matters of household equipment and city building the 

age Carthaginians were quite the equals of the Greeks. The city 
of Carthage itself was large and splendid (Fig. 239). It was in 
area three times as large as Rome. Behind wide docks and 



The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 527 

extensive piers of masonry, teeming with ships and merchan- 
dise, the city spread far inland, with spacious markets and busy 
manufacturing quarters humming with industry. Beyond the 
dwellings of the poorer craftsmen and artisans rose the stately 
houses of the wealthy merchants, with rich and sumptuous trop- 
ical gardens. Around the whole swept imposing walls and 
massive fortifications, inclosing the entire city and making its 
capture almost an impossibility. Behind the great city, outside 
the walls, stretched a wide expanse of waving palm groves and 
tropical plantations, dotted with the luxurious country houses 
of the splendid commercial lords of Carthage, who were to lead 
the coming struggle with Rome. 

Back in the days of the Latin war (ended 338 B.C.), or a 841. Early 
little before, when the Roman merchants were still doing a tSies'^and 
small business, they had been willing that the Senate should J^^ growing 
make a treaty with Carthage, drawing lines which the ships of between 
neither side should cross. Indeed, about the middle of the Sam- and Rome 
nite Wars the Roman Senate had made a second treaty with 
Carthage (306 B.C.), in which it was agreed that no Roman 
ships would enter the harbors of Sicily and no Carthaginian 
ships should trade in the ports of Italy. The capture of the 
Greek cities of Italy by the Romans had left the Greeks of 
Sicily to face the power of Carthage entirely alone. In times 
past they had done this with great success (§ 780), but now, 
unable to unite against Carthage, they were slowly yielding, 
and the Carthaginians were steadily pushing eastward and ab- 
sorbing Sicily. The merchants of Italy looked over at the busy 
harbors of Sicily, where so much profitable trade w^as going 
on, and it filled them with growing impatience that they 
were not permitted to do business there. With increasing vex- 
ation they realized that Rome had gained the supremacy of 
Italy and pushed her frontiers to the southernmost tip of 
the peninsula, only to look across and find that the merchant 
princes of Carthage had made the western " Mediterranean a 
Carthaginian sea. 



528 



Ancient Times 



842. Danger 
to Rome in 
the threat- 
ened loss of 
the Strait 
of Messina 



843. War 

strength of 
the Romans 



844. Roman 
improve- 
ments in 
arms and 
tactics 



Indeed, Carthage was gaining a position which might cut off 
Rome from communication with even her own ports on the 
Adriatic side of Italy. To reach them, Roman ships must pass 
through the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily. The 
advance of Carthage in Sicily might enable her at any time to 
seize the Sicilian city of Messina and close this strait to Roman 
ships. We can understand the dread with which Italian mer- 
chants looked southward, thinking of the day when Cartha- 
ginian warships in the harbor at Messina would stop all traffic 
between the west coast of Italy and the Adriatic. 

The Roman Senate without doubt shared these apprehen- 
sions. Many a Roman senator must have asked himself the 
question, What would be Rome's chances of success in a 
struggle with the mighty North-African commercial empire? 
Rome had little or no navy. The Roman army had been 
barely able to maintain itself against a modern Hellenistic 
commander like Pyrrhus. The ancient regulation drawing the 
soldiers only from among the owners of land had formerly 
limited the size of the army, but it was greatly increased in size 
by the admission of the new class of men having property in 
money (§ 832). The introduction of pay for citizens in the army 
had also increased the possible length of military service among 
a people still chiefly made up of farmers obliged to return home 
to plow, sow, and reap. The Romans could thus put a citizen 
army of over three hundred thousand men into the field. Besides 
the troops made up of Roman citizens, the principle was adopted 
of having each army include also about an equal number of 
troops drawn from the allies. This plan, therefore, doubled 
the number of available troops. The Roman army conse- 
quently far exceeded in size any army ever organized in the 
Mediten-anean world. 

In arms and tactics the Romans had been able to make 
some improvements in the Hellenistic art of war (§ 681). 
The spear was now employed by the Romans only as the 
battle opened, when it was hurled into the ranks of the enemy 



The Supremacy of the Roman Republic in Italy 5 29 



at short range. After this the battle 
was fought by the Romans with 
short swords, which were much 
more easily handled at close quar- 
ters than long spears (Fig. 236). 
At the same time the Romans had 
likewise improved the phalanx, 
which we remember had thus far 
been a massive unit, possessing as 
a whole no flexibility (§ 637). It 
had no joints. The Romans gave 
it joints and flexibility by cutting 
it up in both directions ; that is, 
lengthwise and crosswise. 

They divided the phalanx length- 
wise into three divisions, one form- 
ing the front, one the middle, and 
one the rear (Fig. 237). Each divi- 
sion was about six men deep, and 
there was only a narrow space be- 
tween the divisions. The front divi- 
sion was made up of the young and 
vigorous troops, while the older men 
were placed in the other two divi- 
sions. If the steady old troops be- 
hind saw that a gap was being 
made in the front division, it was 
the business of the second division 
to advance at once and fill the 
gap. This made it necessary to 
cut up the divisions crosswise, into 
short sections, so that a section 
could advance without carrying the 
whole division forward. Such a 
section of a division had a front 
















Fig. 236. A Roman Sol- 
dier OF THE Legion 

The figure of the soldier is 
carved upon a tombstone, 
erected in his memory by 
his brother. His offensive 
weapons are hisspear{//7z^w), 
which he holds in his extended 
right hand with point upward, 
and his heavy short sword 
{gladius), which he wears 
girded high on his right side 
(see § 844). As defensive 
equipment he has a helmet, 
a leathern corselet stopping 
midway between the waist and 
knees, and a shield {scutum) 



845. The 
Romans 
cut up the 
phalanx into 
divisions and 
maniples 



530 Ancieiit Times 

about twenty men long, and being, as we have said, six men 
deep, there were a hundred and twenty men in each section 
of a division. These sections were called 7naniples. Each 
maniple in advancing to fill a gap before it was like a foot- 
ball " back " when he springs forward to stop a gap in the 
line before him. But it is important to notice that thus far 
all three divisions of the phalanx were invariably kept to- 
gether ; they were inseparable. The middle and rear divisions 



A Maniple of the Front Division 



Bear 

Rear Division t=ZD cm en czn cm 
Middle Division i 1 1 1 1 1 1 



Front Diviiif^n i 11 1 1 1 1 1 c 



Front 

Fig. 237. Plan of a Roman Threefold Line of Battle with 
Detail of a Single Maniple above it 

Here we see the once solid and indivisible phalanx of the Greeks 
broken up into three divisions lengthwise (lower diagram), — a front, 
middle, and rear division, — and likewise cut up crosswise into short sec- 
tions (maniples). In the front and middle divisions these maniples were 
six men deep and twenty men long (see upper diagram) and half as long 
in the rear division. The^e sections (maniples) were so placed that the 
openings between them did not coincide, but the maniples of the middle 
division covered the openings, or joints, in the front division (§ 845) 

were always only supports of the front division i?nmediately be- 
fore them. It had not yet occurred to the Romans to shift the 
middle or rear division, as football backs are shifted, to fight fac- 
ing in another direction, or to post them in another part of the 
field, leaving the first division to fight unsupported (Fig. 237). 
When a great Roman, during the struggle with Carthage, discov- 
ered the possibility of thus shifting the middle and rear divisions 
(§874), a new chapter in the art of war began. 

For purposes of mustering and feeding an army, the Romans 
divided it into larger bodies, called legions^ each containing 



The Siiprentacy of the Roman Reptiblic in Italy 531 

usually forty-five hundred men, of whom three hundred were 846. Legions 
cavalry, twelve hundred were light-armed troops, while the turionT 
three thousand forming the body of the legion were the heavy- 
armed men making up the three divisions just described. Each 
maniple of one hundred and twenty men was divided into two 
centuries of sixty men each, for a " centuiy " soon ceased 
always to contain a hundred men. Each century had a com- 
mander called a centurion. A centurion and his century 
roughly corresponded to our captain and his company. 

Notwithstanding these improvements, the Romans did not 847. Lack of 
at first see the importance of a commander in chief of long commandfng 
experience — a man who made warfare his calling and had g^^^^^^^s 
become a professional military leader like the Hellenistic com- 
manders (§ 630). Hence the Romans intrusted their armies 
without hesitation to the command of their consuls, who as 
presidents of the republic had often never had any experience 
in militaiy leadership. Moreover, the consuls might be leading 
their troops just on the eve of battle, and find themselves 
deprived of command by the expiration of their term of office. 
In the Samnite Wars this difficulty had shown the Romans the 
necessity of extending a consul's military power under such 
circumstances. When this was done he was called a proconsul. 
But the Romans were still without professional generals like 
Xenophon (§ 630). At the same time the introduction of pay 
for officers and soldiers had made extended service possible, 
and an experienced body of lower officers such as the centu- 
rions had grown up. 

In military discipline the Romans surpassed all other peoples 848. Roman 
of ancient times ; for even among the Greek troops there was arfd\heTorti- 
great lack of discipline. We hear of a Roman father who ^^^ ^^™P 
ordered his son to be executed in the presence of the army, 
because the young man had, in disobedience of orders, accepted 
single combat with an enemy and slain him. -Even an ex-consul, 
having won a victory after receiving orders from the Dictator 
not to give battle, was condemned to death by the Dictator as 



532 Ancient Times 

the legal consequence of disobedience to a superior. It was 
only with the greatest difficulty that he was saved by his influ- 
ential friends. In accordance with the strict system maintained 
in all their operations it was the invariable practice of a Roman 
army when it halted to construct a square fortified camp, sur- 
rounded by a ridge of earth bearing a stockade of wooden posts 
driven into the crest of the ridge. This camp was a descendant 
of the old prehistoric pile village of northern Italy (Fig. 225). 

QUESTIONS 

Section 'jd. How much time elapsed from the final subjection 
of Latium to Roman leadership of all Italy? How did Rome govern 
the defeated cities of Italy.? How much Italian territory was occu- 
pied by Roman citizens.? Where was it.? Where did Rome place 
her colonies .? Was Italy a unified nation ? Why not ? Mention the 
races and languages of Italy. What was the future language to be? 
Mention some early influences of Greek art and architecture in Italy ; 
of Greek business methods in Italy. What financial changes took 
place at Rome as a result ? 

Section ']'^. Had agriculture carried the Romans outside of 
Italy? Was commerce now to do so? Into what triangular sea does 
the Tiber flow? What great commercial rival of Rome lay on the 
same sea? Who were the ancestors of the Carthaginians? What 
had they achieved in business? What region did Carthage com- 
mercially control? How did she treat ships of other peoples in this 
region? Describe the military organization of Carthage. Had she 
any citizen-soldiers? What was the character of the Carthaginian 
State ? of Carthaginian civilization ? Describe the city and surround- 
ings. What was happening to the Greeks of Sicily? In whose 
hands was the western Mediterranean commercially? Describe the 
danger at Messina. 

Tell about the war strength of the Romans by land,- Describe 
their improvement of the phalanx. What was the purpose of the 
legion? How large was it? What was a centurion ? Had the Romans 
any commanding generals of long experience? Did they have any 
professional soldiers? What can you say about the discipline of 
a Roman army? What did the Romans do when they camped? 
Where had the plan of the Roman camp originated ? 




CHAPTER XXIV 

THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF THE WESTERN 
MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 

Section yS. The Struggle with Carthage : the 
^ Sicilian War, or First Punic War 

Whatever might be the risks involved in a struggle with 849. Open- 
Carthage, the Romans were soon convinced that it could not siciHanWar 
be avoided. During a siesre of Messina at the hands of the i^^^!^ Punic 

^ _ ^ War) with 

Syracusans, one party in the besieged place called in the aid Carthage at 
of the Romans, while another party appealed to Carthage. (264 b.c.) 
The result was that a Carthaginian garrison quickly occupied 
the citadel of Messina, and the Carthaginians were then in 
command of the Strait of Messina. The Romans had long 
hesitated, but now they took the memorable step, and a Roman 
army, responding to the appeal of Messina, left the soil of 



Note. The above fragment of a wall-painting at Pompeii shows us a Roman 
warship, seemingly in battle, for the wreck of another warship is visible at the 
left. Notice the two steering oa7's at each side of the stern — a device found on 
Nile ships three thousand years earlier (Fig. 41). The rudder had not yet devel- 
oped from these steering oars. The Romans ascribed their success, in spite of 
inexperience, against the Carthaginians to a new boarding grappler, which they 
invented and called a "crow" {corvus). It consisted of a heavy upright timber, 
which was made to fall over with the end on the enemy's rail, where an iron hook 
attached to the end of the "crow" grappled and held the opposing craft until the 
Romans coOld climb over into it. In the hand-to-hand fighting which followed, 
the sturdy Romans more than made up for their inexperience in seamanship. 

533 



534 Ancient Times 

Italy and crossed the sea for the first time in Roman history. 
The struggle with Carthage had begun (264 B.C.). 

850. The An alliance with Syracuse soon gave the Romans possession 
build a fleet of eastern Sicily, but they were long unable to make much 

progress into the central and western portion of the island. 
The chief reason for this was the lack of a strong war fleet. 
The Romans, therefore, adopting a naval policy like that of 
Themistocles (§ 506), determined to build a fleet. The Senate 
rapidly pushed the building of the new fleet, and in the fifth 
year of the war it put to sea for the first time. It numbered 
a hundred and twenty battleships, of which a full hundred 
were large, powerful vessels with five banks of oars. 

851. Roman In spitc of inexperience, the Roman fleet was victorious in 
disaSrTtsea two successive battles off the coast of Italy. It looked as if 

the war would be quickly over. The Senate, however, finding 
that the legions made little progress in Sicily, determined to 
invade Africa and strike Carthage at home. The invasion was 
at first very successful, but its progress was unwisely interfered 
with by the Senate, who recalled one of the consuls with many 
of the troops. The result was that the remaining consul, with 
his reduced army, was disastrously defeated. Then one Roman 
fleet after another was destroyed by heavy storms at sea, and 
one of them was badly defeated by the Carthaginians. The 
Romans thus lost their newly won command of the sea, and 
were long unable to make any progress in the war. 

852. Final Year after year the struggle dragged on, while Hamilcar 
of ^he^*^ ^'^ Barca, the Carthaginian commander, was plundering the coasts 
^°Tb"c^ of Italy with his fleet. The treasury at Rome was empty, 

and the Romans were at the end of their resources ; but by 
private contributions they succeeded in building another fleet, 
which put to sea in 242 B.C. with two hundred battleships 
of five banks of oars. The Carthaginian fleet was defeated 
and broken up (241 B.C.), and as a result the Carthaginians 
found themselves unable to send reenforcements across the 
sea to their army in Sicily. 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 535 

■ They were therefore at last obliged to accept hard terms of 853. Peace at 
peace at the hands of the Romans. The Carthaginians were sicUkn Wa/ 
to give up Sicily and the neighboring islands to Rome, and ^^^'^ ^"^'^ 
to pay the Romans as war damages the sum of thirty-two 
hundred talents, over three and a half million dollars, within 
ten years. Thus in 241 B.C., after more than twenty-three years 
of fighting, the first period of the struggle between Rome and 
Carthage ended with the victory of Rome. 

The struggle had been carried on till both contestants were 854. Some 
completely exhausted. Both had learned much in the art of Sicilian War 
war, and Rome for the first time had become a sea power. 
At the same time she had taken a step which forever changed 
her future and altered her destiny ; for the first time she held 
territory outside of Italy, and from this step she was never 
able to withdraw. It has been compared with the action of 
the United States in taking Porto Rico and the Philippines; 
for in gaining interests and responsibilities across the sea, a 
nation is at once thrown into conflict with other powers having 
similar interests, and this conflict of interests never reaches an 
end, but leads from one war to another. 



Section 79. The Hannibalic War (Second Punic 
War) and the Destruction of Carthage 

Both the rivals now devoted themselves to increasing their 855. Roman 
strength, nor did Rome hesitate to do so at the expense of sa?dhfiaand 
Carthage. Taking advantage of a revolt among the hired Car- ^^^j^qj^'^^^^^'J^f 
thaginian troops in Sardinia, the Romans accepted an invitation the Po valley 
from these mercenaries to invade both Sardinia and Corsica; 
and in spite of protests from Carthage, only three years after 
the settlement of peace Rome took possession of these two 
islands. Rome now possessed three island outposts against 
Carthage. Some years later the Romans were involved in a 
serious war by an invasion of the Gauls from the Po valley. 
The Gauls were disastrously defeated, and their territory was 



536 



Ancient Times 



856. New 
Carthaginian 
conquests in 
Spain and 
the rise of 
Hannibal 



857. Hanni- 
balic War is 
provoked by 
a frontier 
quarrel in 
Spain 
(219 B.C.) 



858. Open- 
ing of the 
Hannibalic 
War (218- 
202 B.C.) ; 
Hannibal's 
reasons for 
invading 
Italy by 
land from 
the north 



seized by the Romans without granting the Gauls any form of 
citizenship. Thus Roman power was extended northward to 
the foot of the Alps, and the entire peninsula from the Alps 
southward was held by Rome (map II, p. 552). 

To offset this increase of Roman power and to compensate 
for the loss of the three large islands, the Carthaginian leaders 
turned toward Spain. Here still dwelt the hardy descendants 
of the Late Stone Age Europeans of the West (§ 325). Hamil- 
car, the Carthaginian general, planned to secure the wealth of 
their silver mines, to enlist the natives in the army, and thus 
to build up a power able to meet that of Rome. He died 
before the completion of his plans, but they were taken up 
by his gifted son Hannibal, who extended Carthaginian rule 
in Spain as far north as the Ebro River (map II, p. 552). 
Although only twenty-four years of age, Hannibal was already 
forming colossal plans for a bold surprise of Rome in her own 
territory, which by its unexpectedness and audacity should crush 
Roman power in Italy. 

Rome, busily occupied in overdirowing the Gauls, had been 
unable to interfere with the Spanish enterprises of Carthage. 
She had, however, secured an agreement that Carthage should 
not advance northward beyond the Ebro River. To so bold 
and resolute a leader as Hannibal such a stipulation was only 
an opportunity for a frontier quarrel with Rome in Spain. In 
the tremendous struggle which followed he was the genius 
and the dominating spirit. It was a colossal contest between 
the nation Rome and the 7nan Hannibal. We may therefore 
well call it the Hannibalic War. 

While the Roman Senate was demanding that the leaders at 
Carthage disavow his hostile acts, Hannibal, with a strong and 
well-drilled army of about forty thousand men, was already 
marching northward along the east coast of Spain (map, p. 538). 
Several reasons led him to this course. He knew that since the 
Sicilian war the defeated Carthaginian fleet would be unable to 
protect his army if he tried to cross by water from Carthage and 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 537 

to land in southern Italy. Moreover, his cavalry, over six thou- 
sand strong, was much too numerous to be transported by sea. 
In southern Italy, furthermore, he would have been met at once 
by a hostile population, whereas in northern Italy there were the 
newly conquered Gauls, burning for revenge on the Romans, 
their conquerors. Hannibal intended to offer them an oppor- 
tunity for that revenge by enlistment in his ranks. Moreover, 
he had reports of dissatisfaction among the allies of Rome also, 
and he believed that by an early victory in northern Italy he 
could induce the allies to forsake Rome and join him in a war 
for independence which would destroy Roman leadership in 
Italy. For these reasons, while the Roman Senate was planning 
to invade Spain and Africa, they found their own land suddenly 
invaded by Hannibal from the north. 

By clever maneuvering at the Rhone, Hannibal avoided the 859. Hanni- 
Roman army, which had arrived there on its way to Spain. The the R^oinans 
crossing of the Rhone, a wide, deep, and swift river, with ele- ^* ?f Rhone 

° T 1 ft 1 and leads his 

phants and cavalry and the long detour to avoid the Romans army across 
so delayed Hannibal that it was late autumn when he reached (218 b.c.) 

the Alps (218 B.C.). Overwhelmed by snowstorms; struggling 

over a steep and dangerous trail, sometimes so narrow that the 
rocks had to be cut away to make room for the elephants ; 
looking down over dizzy precipices, or up to snow-covered 
heights where hostile natives rolled great stones down upon 
them, the discouraged army of Hannibal toiled on day after day, 
exhausted, cold, and hungry. At every point along the strag- 
gling line, where help was most needed, the young Carthaginian 
was always present, encouraging and guiding his men. But 
when they issued from the Alpine pass, perhaps Mt. Cenis, 
into the upper valley of the Po, they had suffered such losses 
that they were reduced to some thirty-four thousand men. 

With this little army the dauntless Carthaginian youth had 860. inferior 
, , . p , ... r 1 • s^^^ of Han- 

entered the territory of the strongest military power 01 the time nibal's army 

— a nation which could now call to her defense over seven hun- w^Jh^Ro^an 
dred thousand men, citizens and allies. From this vast number resources 



538 



Ancient Times 



86i. Supe- 
riority of 
Hannibal's 
military 
knowledge 
over that of 
the Roman 
consuls 



Rome could recruit army after army ; but Hannibal, on the other 
hand, as long as Carthage did not control the sea, could expect 
no reenforcements from home except through Spain. A military 
success was necessary at once in order to arouse the hopes of 
the Gauls and secure recruits from among them. 

Hannibal, who was in close contact with a number of Greeks, 
was thoroughly acquainted with the most highly developed 




The Route and Marches of Hannibal from 218 to 203 b.c. 

The dates indicate the progress of the march. During Hannibal's long 

stay in southern Italy, he made many marches and local movements 

not indicated in the above sketch. Indeed, we know very little about 

many of his operations in this region 

methods of warfare. The exploits of Alexander, who had died 
a little over a century before Hannibal's invasion of Italy, were 
familiar to him, and it is not impossible that the fascinating story 
of Alexander's campaigns was read to the young Carthaginian 
as he lay with his Greek companions around the camp fires in 
Italy. Furthermore, we recall that Roman consuls, command- 
ing the Roman armies, were simply magistrates like our mayors 
or presidents, often without much more knowledge of handling 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterrajiean 539 

an army than has a city mayor in our time. Gifted with little 
imagination, blunt and straightforward, brave and eager to meet 
the enemy at once, the Roman consuls were no match for the 
crafty young Carthaginian. 

By skillful use of his cavalry, in which the Romans were 862. Hanni- 
weak, Hannibal at once won two engagements in the Po valley, three vic- 
The Gauls began to flock to his standards, but they were raw, ^*^"^^ 
undisciplined troops. He was still outside the barrier of Roman 
fortresses defending the Apennines, and this he must not fail 
to pierce without delay. By early spring, therefore (217 B.C.), 
amid fearful difficulties which would have broken the courage 
of most commanders, Hannibal successfully passed the belt of 
Roman strongholds blocking the roads through the Apennines. 
Even after he had crossed the Arnus, the Roman consul Flamin- 
ius had no notion of the Carthaginian advance, though he soon 
learned that the Carthaginians were between him and Rome. 
Nevertheless, on the shores of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal easily 
surprised the army of the unsuspecting consul on the march, 
ambushed the legions both in front and rear, and cut to pieces 
the entire Roman army, so that only a handful escaped and the 
consul himself fell. But a few days' march from Rome, Hannibal 
might now have advanced directly against the city ; but he had 
no siege machinery (headpiece, p. 1 40), and his forces were not 
numerous enough for the siege of so strong a fortress. More- 
over, his cavalry, in which he was superior to the Romans, 
would have been useless in a siege. He therefore desired an- 
other victory in the hope that the allies of Rome would revolt 
and join him in attacking the city. 

Hannibal therefore marched eastward to the Adriatic coast, 863. A year 
where he secured numerous horses, much needed by his cavalry, preparation 
and also found plentiful provisions, besides an opportunity to ^^^^7- 
drill his Gallic recruits. At this dangerous crisis the Romans 
appointed a Dictator, a stable old citizen named Fabius, whose 
policy was to wear out Hannibal by refusing to give battle and 
by using every opportunity to harass the Carthaginians. This 



540 Ancient Times 

policy of caution and delay did not meet with popular favor at 
Rome. The people called Fabius the Laggard (^Cundator), a 
name which ever afterward clung to him ; and the new consuls 
elected for 216 b. c. were urged to take action and destroy the 
Carthaginian army without more delay. They therefore re- 
cruited an army of nearly sevent}^ thousand men and pushed 
southward toward the heel of the Italian peninsula to meet 
Hannibal. The Carthaginian deftly outwitted them and, march- 
ing to Cannae, captured the Roman supplies. The consuls 
were then obliged to give battle or retire for more supplies. 



Heavy Infantry Cenier 

I = ' 1 Cavalry 

Cavalry | | Cav alry § ^g/g^^^^^^ 



Cavalry ■ Heavy Infantry Center ■ Cavalry o T'lB^^l^l^^^^^^lFIS 



■ Heavy Infantry Center ■ 



B BOMAy CE^rrKR- fl 



OH 



Heavy Infantry Center '• j 



6000 €000 Former Former 

African African Position Position 

Infantry A Infantry of Africans B ofAfricans 

Position of the two armies as the Roman center surrounded after 

battle began the Roman cavalry was routed 

black = Carthaginians and the two African divisions 
shaded = Romans were pushed forward 

Plan of the Battle of Cann^ (§§ 864-865) 

864. The With their fifty-five thousand heavy-armed infantry the consuls 

at\h?battie were almost twice as strong as Hannibal, who had but thirty- 
of Cannae ^^^^ thousand such troops. On the other hand, Hannibal had 
about ten thousand horse against six thousand of the Roman 
cavalry, while both armies were about equally strong in light- 
armed troops. Varro, the Roman consul, had been merely a 
successful business man at Rome. He drew up his heavy-armed 
troops in a deep mass in the center, with a short front. Had 
he spread them out, so that their superior numbers might 
form a longer front than that of Hannibal, they might have 
enfolded and outflanked the Carthaginian army. Both armies 
divided their cavalry, that it might form the two wings. Instead 
of massing all his heavy-armed troops in the center to meet the 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterra7iean 541 

great mass of the Roman center, Hannibal took out some twelve 
thousand of his heavy-armed African infantry in two bodies of 
six thousand each and stationed them in a deep column behind 
each of his cavalry wings (plan A^ p. 540). 

Hannibal's stronger cavalry put to flight the Roman horse 865. Hanni- 
forming both wings. Then as his well-trained horsemen turned ia^tes"he ^' 
back to attack the heavy mass of the Roman center in the Roman army 

•' at the battle 

rear, he knew that it was too late for the Romans, perceiving of Cannse 
their danger, to retreat and escape, for they were caught be- 
tween the Carthaginian center before them and the Carthagin- 
ian cavalry behind them. Only the sides of the trap were open. 
Then came a great moment in ^ 

the young Carthaginian's life. 
With unerring judgment, just at 
the proper instant, he gave the 
orders which closed up the sides J 
of the trap he had so cleverly p 
prepared. The two bodies of | 
Africans which he had posted '' 

behind the cavalry wins^s, on „ o r- 

^ ^ ' Fig. 238. Carthaginian 

each side, pushed quietly forward helmet picked up on the 
till they occupied positions on Battlefield at Cann^ 
each side of the fifty-five thou- 
sand brave Romans of the center, who were thus inclosed on 
all sides (plan B, p. 540). What ensued was simply a slaughter 
of the doomed Romans, lasting all the rest of the day. When 
night closed in the Roman army was annihilated. Ex-consuls, 
senators, nobles, thousands of the best citizens of Rome had 
fallen in this frightful battle. Every family in Rome was in 
mourning. Of the gold rings worn by Roman knights as an 
indication of their rank, Hannibal is reported to have sent a 
bushel to Carthage. Even in modern times pieces of armor 
have been picked up on the battlefield (Fig. 238). 

Thus this masterful young Carthaginian, the greatest of 
Semite generals, within two years after his arrival in Italy and 




542 



Ancieiit Times 



866. Hanni- 
bal organizes 
the revolting 
Roman allies 
against Rome 
and calls in 
the Mace- 
donians 



867. Hanni- 
bal's states- 
manship and 
the diffi- 
culties of 
his position 



868. Roman 
diplomacy 
checkmates 
Macedonia 
and Roman 
determina- 
tion recovers 
the revolting 
cities 



before he was thirty years of age, had defeated his giant an- 
tagonist in four battles and destroyed three of the opposing 
armies. He might now count upon a revolt among the Roman 
allies. Within a few years southern Italy, including the Greek 
cities, and even Syracuse in Sicily forsook Rome and joined 
Hannibal. Only some of the southern Latin colonies held out 
against him. To make matters worse for Rome, immediately 
after Cannae, Hannibal sent messengers to Macedonia, and one 
of the later Philips then reigning there agreed to send help to 
the Carthaginians in Italy. 

In all this Hannibal was displaying the judgment and insight 
of a statesman combined with amazing ability to meet the 
incessant demands of the military situation. This required him 
to lay out campaigns, to drill the inexperienced new recruits, to 
insure supplies of food and fresh horses for his army, while at 
the same time he was forced also to find the money with which 
to pay his turbulent and dissatisfied mercenaries. In carrying out 
all this work he was untiring, and his eye was everywhere. It 
was no uncommon thing for some private soldier to wake in 
the morning and find his young general sleeping on the ground 
by his side. There was a consuming fire of desire in his soul 
to save Carthage ; and now his glorious victories were drawing 
together the foes of Rome in a great combination which he 
believed would bring about the destruction of his country's 
hated antagonist. 

But opposing the burning zeal of a single gifted soul were 
the dogged resolution, the ripe statesmanship, the unshaken 
organization, and the seemingly inexhaustible numbers of the 
Romans. It was a battle of giants for the mastery of the world ; 
for the victor in this struggle would without any question be 
the greatest power in the Mediterranean. Had the successors 
of Alexander in the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean discerned 
the nature of this gigantic struggle in Italy, and been able to 
combine against Rome, they might now have crushed her for- 
ever (see map I, p. 448). But the Roman Senate, with clever 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterrajiean 543 

statesmanship, made an alliance with the Greeks, thus stirring i 

up a revolt in Greece against the Macedonians and preventing 

them from furnishing help to Hannibal In spite of Hannibal's 

victories, the steadiness and fine leadership of the Roman Senate 

held central Italy loyal to Rome. Although the Romans were 

finally compelled to place arms in the hands of slaves and mere 

boys, new armies were formed. With these forces the Romans 

proceeded to besiege and capture the revolting allied cities one 

after another. Even the clever devices of Archimedes during 

a desperate siege (§ 742) did not save Syracuse from being 

recaptured by the Romans (212 b.c). 

Capua likewise, the second city of Italy, which had gone 869. Hanni- 
over to his cause, was besieged by the Romans in spite of all advance tV^* 
Hannibal's efforts to drive them away. As a last hope he Rome and 

•^ *■ the recapture 

marched upon Rome itself, and with his bodyguard rode up to of Capua by 

. , f -i -1 1 the Romans 

one of the gates 01 the great city, whose power seemed so un- (211 b.c.) 
broken. For a brief time the two antagonists faced each other, 
and many a Roman senator must have looked over the walls 
at the figure of the tremendous young Carthaginian who had 
shaken all Italy as with an earthquake. But they were not to 
be frightened into offers of peace in this way, nor did they 
send out any message to him. His army was not large enough 
to lay siege to the greatest city of Italy, nor had he been able to 
secure any siege machinery (§ 632), and he was obliged to 
retreat without accomplishing anything. Capua was thereupon 
captured by the Romans and punished without mercy. 

The hitherto dauntless spirit of the young Carthaginian at 870. Hanni- 
last began to feel the crushing weight of Roman confidence, forcements 
When he had finally been ten years in Italy, he realized that intercepted 

-^ -^ •' \ ^ and destroyed 

unless powerful reenforcenents could reach him, his cause was (207 b.c.) 
hopeless. His brother Hasdrubal in Spain had gathered an 
army and was now marching into Italy to aid him. At the 
Metaurus River, in the region of Sentinum, where the fate 
of Rome had once before been settled (§ 819), Hasdrubal 
was met by a Roman army. He was completely defeated and 



544 



Ancient Times 



871. The 
decline of 
Hannibal's 
power in 
Italy and 
the rise of 
Scipio 



872. Scipio 
and Hanni- 
bal meet 
at Zama 
(202 B.C.) ; 
the tactics 
of Hannibal 



slain (207 B.C.). To the senators waiting in keenest anticipation 
at Rome the news of the victory meant the salvation of Italy 
and the final defeat of an enemy who had all but accomplished 
the destruction of Roman power. To Hannibal, anxiously await- 
ing tidings of his brother and of the needed reenforcements, 
the first announcement of the disaster and the crushing of his 
hopes was the head of Hasdrubal hurled into the Carthaginian 
camp by a Roman messenger. 

For a few years more Hannibal struggled on in the southern 
tip of Italy, the only territory remaining of all that he had cap- 
tured. Meantime the Romans, taught by sad experience, had 
given the command of their forces in Spain to Scipio, one of 
the ablest of their younger leaders. He had routed the Car- 
thaginians and driven them entirely out of Spain, thus cutting 
off their chief supply both of money and of troops. In Scipio 
the Romans had at last found a general, with the masterful qual- 
ities which make a great military leader. He demanded of the 
Senate that he be sent to Africa to invade the dominions of 
Carthage as Hannibal had invaded those of Rome. 

By 203 B.C. Scipio had twice defeated the Carthaginian forces 
in Africa, and Carthage was forced to call Hannibal home. He 
had spent fifteen years on the soil of Italy, and the great strug- 
gle between the almost exhausted rivals was now to be decided 
in Africa. At Zama, inland from Carthage, the final battle 
of the war took place. Hannibal, having insufficient cavalry, 
foresaw that his weak cavalry wings would be defeated by 
Scipio's opposing heavy bodies of horsemen. When, as he ex- 
pected, the Roman cavalry wings disappeared in pursuit of his 
own fleeing horsemen, the wings of both armies were cleared 
away for one of those unexpected but carefully planned maneu- 
vers by which the great Carthaginian had destroyed the Roman 
army at Cannae. From behind his line Hannibal moved out two 
divisions in opposite directions, elongating his own line beyond 
the ends of the Roman line, which he intended to inclose on 
either side. In football language, Hannibal had Qr<^?red his 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 545 

backs to spread out and to execute a play around both the 
Roman ends at once. The fate of two empires was trembling 
in the balance as Hannibal's steel trap thus extended its jaws 
on either side to enfold the Roman army. 

But behind the Roman army there was a mind like that of 873. The 
Hannibal. The keen eye of the Roman commander discovered moves of 
the flash of movins: steel behind the Carthaginian lines. He |'^'P*^ hxxxig 

o ° Roman vic- 

understood the movement and at once grasped the danger which toiy at Zama 
threatened his army. As a result of Cannse, Scipio had long 
before abandoned all Roman tradition, and had taught his 
front division to fight without the support of the rear divisions 
behind them (§ 845). In football language again, he too had 
learned to shift his backs and had taught the line to hold with- 
out them. The shrewd young Roman commander therefore 
gave his orders without hesitation. For the first time in history 
the rear divisions behind the front of a Roman center left the 
front division to fight alone. As quietly as on a parade march 
they parted to the left and right and, marching behind the fight- 
ing line in opposite directions, they took up their posts, extend- 
ing the Roman front at either end where at first the cavalry 
wings had been. When Hannibal's spreading divisions pushed 
out beyond the Roman ends, where they were expected to carry 
out their "around-the-end" movements, they found facing them 
a Roman wall of steel, and the batde continued in two parallel 
lines longer than before. The great Carthaginian had been 
foiled at his own game by an equally great Roman. When the 
Roman cavalry returned from their pursuit and fell on the 
Carthaginian flank, Hannibal beheld his lines crumbling and 
giving way in final and complete defeat. 

In this great battle we see the conclusion of a long and re- 874. The 
markable development in the art of war, from the wild disorder ^^^ . divi- 
of entirely undisciplined fighting (Fig. 88) to the formation ^'°" tactics 
of a heavy phalanx of disciplined men, the earliest trained- 
fighting team as it appeared in the Orient (Fig. 87). Then 
in Europe, after Philip and Alexander, the deep phalanx as 



54^ /^ ;/«>;// Times 

used by the Greeks was no longer regarded by the >Romans 
as a rigid, indivisible fighting unit, but it was broken up into a 
fighting line in front and a group of shifting backs behind. 
On the field of Zama, Scipio and Hannibal had advanced to a 
new stage in the art of warfare, and had created what is now 
known as " division tactics " — the art of manipulating an army 
on the field in divisions shifted behind the line of battle as a 
skillful football leader shifts his backs, trusting to the line to 
hold while he does so. 

875. The The victory of Rome over Carthage made Rome the leading 
thTHamii-"^ power in the whole ancient world. In the treaty which followed 
bahc War ^^ battle of Zama, the Romans forced Carthage to pay ten 

thousand talents (over $11,000,000) in fifty years and to sur- 
render all her warships but ten triremes. But what was worse 
she lost her independence as a nation, and according to the 
treaty she could not make war anywhere without the consent 
of the Romans. Although the Romans did not annex her 
territory in Africa, Carthage had become a vassal state. 

876. The fate Hannibal had escaped after his lost battle at Zama. Although 

we learn of his deeds chiefly through his enemies, the story 
of his dauntless struggle to save his native country, begun 
when he was only twenty-four and continued for twenty years, 
reveals him as one of the greatest and most gifted leaders in 
all history — a lion-hearted man, so strong of purpose that 
only a great nation like Rome could have crushed him. Indeed, 
Rome now compelled the Carthaginians to expel Hannibal, and, 
a man of fifty, he went into exile in the East, where we shall 
find him stirring up the successors of Alexander to combine 
against Rome. 

877. The de- Such was the commercial ability of the Carthaginians that 
Carthage ° ^^^7 continued to prosper even while paying the heavy tribute 
^l^^ ?'^''* "• with which Rome had burdened them. Meantime, the new mis- 

fhird Punic 

War tress of the western Mediterranean kept an anxious eye on her 

old rival. Even the stalwart Romans remembered with uneasi- 
ness the invasion of Hannibal. Cato, a famous old-fashioned 



Roman Conquest of the Western Mediterranean 547 

senator, was so convinced that Carthage was still a danger to 
Rome that he concluded all his speeches in the Senate with the 
words, " Carthage must be destroyed." For over fifty years 
more the merchants of Carthage were permitted to traffic in 
the western Mediterranean, and then the iron hand of Rome 
was laid upon the doomed city for the last time. To defend 
herself against the Numidians behind her, Carthage was 
finally obliged to begin war against them. This step, which 




Fig. 239. The Harbors of Carthage as they are To-day 

Of the city destroyed by the Romans almost nothing has survived. It 
was rebuilt under Julius Caesar, but, as we see here, very little of this 
later city has survived. Thorough and systematic excavation would 
probably recover many valuable remains of ancient Carthaginian civili- 
zation, of which we know so little 



the Romans had long been desiring, was a violation of the 
treaty with Rome. The Senate seized the opportunity at 
once and Carthage was called to account. In the three years' 
war (Third Punic War) which followed, the beautiful city was 
captured and completely destroyed (146 B.C.) (see Fig. 239). 
Its territory was taken by Rome and called the Province of 
Africa. A struggle of nearly one hundred and twenty years 
had resulted in the annihilation of Rome's only remaining 
rival in the West (see map III, p. 552). 



548 



Ancient Times 



878. Rome, 
supreme in 
the West, 
turns cast- 
ward 



Thus the fourfold rivalry in the western Mediterranean, 
which had long included the Etruscans and Carthaginians, the 
Greeks and the Romans, had ended with the triumph of the 
once insignificant village above the prehistoric market on 
the Tiber (§ 784). Racially, the western wing of the Indo- 
European line had proved victorious over that of the Semite 
line (Fig. 112). The western Mediterranean world was now 
under the leadership of a single great nation, the Romans, as 
the eastern Mediterranean world had once been under the 
leadership of the Macedonians. We must now turn back and 
follow the dealings of Rome with the Hellenistic-oriental world 
of the eastern Mediterranean, which we left (Chap. XXI) 
after it had attained the most highly refined civilization ever 
achieved by ancient man (see map II, p. 448). 



QUESTIONS 

Section 78. At what point did Rome and Carthage come into 
conflict? How.? When.? Had the Romans any sea power.?- How- 
did they get it ? Give a brief statement of the course of the Sicilian 
War. What were the main results ? 

Section 79. What territory did the Romans gain shortly after 
the Sicilian War.? Whither did Carthage go for new resources.? 
Who provoked the ensuing war ? Describe Hannibal's plan of cam- 
paign in full. Recount his march into Italy. How did his numbers 
compare with those of Rome.? W^hat can you say of his military 
knowledge? Describe his first three encounters with the Romans. 
Where did he then go ? What did the Romans do ? Draw two plans, 
and tell the story of the battle of Cannae. What political moves did 
Hannibal then make? How did the Romans meet them? What 
course did Rome follow toward her revolting allies ? What happened 
at Capua? What did Hannibal's brother do? 

What were the Romans meantime doing in Spain ? Who was the 
Roman leader there ? Recount the battle of Zama. What advance 
in the art of warfare was shown there ? What were the main results 
of the Hannibalic War? What became of Hannibal? Recount the 
destruction of Carthage, How long had the struggle between Rome 
and Carthage lasted ? Who was now leader of the West ? 




CHAPTER XXV 

WORLD DOMINION AND DEGENERACY 

Section 8o. The Roman Conquest of the Eastern 
Mediterranean World 



While the heirs of Alexander were carrying on their cease- 
less feuds, plots, wars, and alliances in the eastern Mediter- 
ranean, as we have seen them doing down to about 200 B.C. 
(Chap. XX), the vast power of Rome had been slowly rising 
in the West. The serious consequences of Rome's growth, and, 
especially of her expansion beyond the sea, were now evident. 
The Roman Senate could not allow any state on the Mediter- 
ranean to develop such strength as to endanger Rome in the 
way Carthage had done during the Hannibalic War. For this 
and other reasons the western giant was now to overshadow 
the whole Hellenistic world of the East, and finally to draw the 

Note. The relief above, found in the Theater of Marcelkis, built by Augustus 
(§ 994), gives us a very vivacious glimpse of a battle between gladiators and wild 
beasts, just as the Romans saw it. The gladiators in this combat wear only a 
tunic and have no defensive armor except a helmet and a shield. Note the ex- 
pression of pain on the face of the gladiator at the left, whose arm is being 
lacerated by the lion. 

549 



879. Coming 
conflict be- 
tween the 
western and 
the eastern 
(Hellenistic) 
Mediterra- 
nean world 



of the Roman 
war with 
Macedon 



550 Ancient Times 

three great states of Alexander's heirs into his grasp. I^et us see 
what the reasons for the first collision were (see map II, p. 448). 

880. Causes Hannibal had induced Macedonia to combine with him 
against Rom^e (§ 866). This hostile step could not be over- 
looked by the Romans after the Hannibalic War. Philip, the 

Macedonian king, was a gifted ruler and an able military com- 
mander like his great ancestor, the father of Alexander the 
Great, a hundred and fifty years earlier. The further plans 
of this later Philip filled the Senate with anxiety. For he 
had arranged a combination between himself and Antiochus 
the Great (the third of the name), the Seleucid king of Syria. 
By this alliance the two were to divide the dominions of Egypt 
between them. Because of what he had already done, and 
also because of what he would do if allowed to go on and 
gain greatly increased power, the Romans were now obliged to 
turn eastward and crush Philip of Macedon (map II, p. 448). 

881. Battle of The Greek states had no reason to support the rule of 
(i^"°Bx.^;^^ Macedonia over them; Antiochus was too busy seizing the 
^ssal^T ^ Asiatic territory of Egypt to send any help to Macedonia ; and 
Rome hence a year after the close of the Hannibalic War, Philip 

found himself without strong allies, face to face with a Roman 
army. By his unusual skill as a commander he evaded the 
Roman force for some time. But in the end the massive Mace- 
donian phalanx, bristling with long spears, was obliged to meet 
the onset of the Roman legions, with their deadly short swords 
and the puzzling divisions behind the lines shifting into unex- 
pected positions which the phalanx was not flexible enough 
to meet. On the field of Cynoscephalae (dog's heads), in 
197 B.C., the Macedonian army was disastrously routed, and 
the ancient realm of Alexander the Great became a vassal state 
under Rome. As allies of Rome, the Greek states were then 
granted their freedom by the Romans. 

This war with Macedon brought the Romans into conflict 
with Antiochus the Great, the Seleucid king, who held a large 
part of the vast empire of Persia in Asia. For Antiochus now 



World Dominioji and Degeneracy 5 5 1 

endeavored to profit by Philip's defeat and to seize some of 882. Roman 
Philip's former possessions which the Romans had declared theSdeudd 
free. A war with this powerful Asiatic empire was not a matter Empire, re- 

^ ^ sultmg from 

which the Romans could view without great anxiety. Moreover, the conquest 
Hannibal, expelled from Carthage (§ 876), was now in Greece 
with Antiochus, advising him. In spite of the warnings and 
urgent counsels of Hannibal, Antiochus threw away his oppor- 
tunities in Greece until the Roman legions maneuvered him 
back into Asia Minor, whither the Romans followed him, and 
there the great power of the West for the first time confronted 
the motley forces of the ancient Orient as marshaled by the 
successor of Persia in Asia (see map H, p. 448). 

The conqueror of Hannibal at Zama was with the Roman 883. The 
army to counsel his brother, another Scipio, consul for the year, Amiochus ° 
and therefore in command of the legions. There was no hope 'f- Magnesia 

^ ^ (190 B.C.) and 

for the undisciplined troops of the Orient when confronted by the voluntary 

^ 11 r 1 • T vassalship 

a Roman army under such masters 01 the new tactics as these of Egypt 
two Scipios. At Magnesia, the West led by Rome overthrew ^^ ^'^^ . 
the East led by the dilatory Antiochus (190 B.C.), and the lands 
of Asia Minor eastward to the Halys River submitted to Roman 
control. Under the ensuing treaty Antiochus was not permitted 
to cross the Halys River westward or to send a warship west 
of the same longitude. Within twelve years (200 to 189 b.c.) 
Roman arms had reduced to the condition of vassal states two 
of the three great empires which succeeded Alexander in the 
East — Macedonia and Syria (see map IH, p. 448). As for 
Egypt, the third, friendship had from the beginning existed 
between her and Rome. A little over thirty years after a 
Roman army had first appeared in the Hellenistic world, Egypt 
acknowledged herself a vassal of Rome (168 B.C.). 

Although defeated, the eastern Mediterranean world long 884. Anni- 
continued to give the Romans much trouble. The quarrels of Macedon 
the eastern states amons^ themselves were constantly carried . and the sub- 

^ ■' jection of 

to Rome for settlement. It became necessary to destroy Mace- the Greeks 
donia as a kingdom and to make her a Roman province. At 



552 



Ancient Times 



885. The 
rapidity of 
the Roman 
conquests 



886. Rome's 
great task 
of imperial 
organization 



the same time Greek sympathy for Macedonia was made the 
pretext for greater severity toward the Greeks. Many were 
carried off to Italy as hostages, and among them no less than 
a thousand noble and educated Achseans were brought to Rome. 
When in spite of this the Achaean League (§ 725) rashly brought 
on a war with Rome, the Romans applied the same methods 
which they were using against Carthage. The same year 
which saw the destruction of Carthage witnessed the burn- 
ing of Corinth also (146 B.C.). Greek liberty was of course 
ended, and while a city of such revered memories as Athens 
might be given greater freedom (§ 726), those Greek states 
whose careers of glorious achievement in civilization we have 
followed, were reduced to the condition of Roman vassals. 

It was little more than three generations since the Republic 
on the Tiber took the fateful step of beginning the conflict with 
Carthage for the leadership of the West. That struggle had led 
her into a similar conflict for the leadership of the East. There 
w^ere old men still living who had talked with veterans of the 
Sicilian War with Carthage, and the grandsons of the Romans 
who had fought with Hannibal had burned Carthage and 
Corinth at the end of the great wars. For nearly a century 
and a quarter (beginning 264 B.C.) one great war had followed 
another, and the Roman republic, beginning these struggles as 
mistress of Italy only, had in this short space of time (from great- 
grandfather to great-grandson) gained the political leadership of 
the civilized world (cf. maps I, II, and III, p. 552). 

The Roman Senate had shown eminent ability in conduct- 
ing the great wars, but now, having gained the supremacy 
of the Mediterranean world, Rome was faced by the problem 
of devising successful government for the vast dominions which 
she had so quickly conquered. In extent they would have 
reached entirely across the United States. To organize such 
an empire was a task like that which had been so successfully 
accomplished by Darius, the organizer of the Persian Empire 
(§ 267). We shall find that the Roman Senate utterly failed 




Longitude j^ V0° J^^eA 



40° 50° 

\ Map in 

Expansion of Roman Power 

from the End of the Hannibalian War 

to the Beginning of the Revolution 

(201-133 B.C.) 
Scale of Miles 

500 \(o 




Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Powe 

TO THE Death < 



Greenwich 40° 

J \ Map 11 

Expansion of Roman Power 

between the Sicilian and Hannibalian 

Wars with Carthage (241-218 B.C.) 

Scale of Miles 
100 300 500 




•ROM THE Beginning of the Wars with Carthage (264 b.c.) 

Z!iESAR (44 B.C.) 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 553 

in the effort to organize the new dominions. The failure had 
a most disastrous influence on the Romans themselves and, 
together with the ruinous effects of the long wars on Italy, 
finally overthrew the Roman republic — an overthrow in which 
Rome as a nation almost perished. Let us now glance at the 
efforts of Rome to govern her new dominions and then 
observe the effect of the long wars and of world power on 
the Romans and their life. 



Section 81. Roman Government and Civilization 
IN THE Age of Conquest 

The Romans had at first no experience in governing their 887. Estab- 
conquered lands, as the United States had none when it took of R^man 
possession of the Philippines. Most of the conquered coun- P^'o^inces 
tries the Romans organized as provinces, somewhat after the 
manner of the provinces of the old Persian Empire. The peo- 
ple of a province were not permitted to maintain an army, 
but they were obliged to pay taxes and, lastly, to submit to 
the uncontrolled rule of a Roman magistrate who was gov- 
ernor of the province. It was chiefly the presence and power 
of this governor which made the condition of the provinces 
beyond the sea so different from that of the Roman possessions 
in Italy. The regulations for the rule of the provinces were 
made in each case by the Roman Senate, and on the whole 
they were not oppressive. But the Senate made no provisions 
for compelling the Roman governor to obey these regulations. 

Such a governor, enjoying unlimited power like that of an 888. The 
oriental sovereign, found himself far from home with Roman pow^rTnd 
troops at his elbow awaiting^ his slightest command. He had corruption of 

^ . t> & the Roman 

complete control of all the taxes of the province, and he could provincial 
take what he needed from its people to support his troops and 
the expenses of his government. He usually held office for^a 
single year and was generally without experience in provincial 
government. His eagerness to gain a fortune in his short term 



554 



A^tcient Times 



889. The 

new wealth 
of Rome 



890. Growth 
of commerce 
and the rise 
of banking 



of office and his complete ignorance of the needs of his prov- 
ince frequently reduced his government to a mere system of 
looting and robbery. The Senate soon found it necessary to 
have laws passed for the punishment of such abuses ; but these 
laws were found to be of little use in improving the situation. 

The effects of this situation were soon apparent in Italy. In 
the first place, the income of the Roman government was so 
enormously increased that it was no longer necessary to collect 
direct taxes from Roman citizens. This new wealth was not 
confined to the State. The spoils from the wars were usually 
taken by the victorious commanders and their troops. At the 
same time the provinces were soon filled with Roman business 
men. There were contractors called publicans, who were allowed 
to collect the taxes for the State at a great profit (§ 623), or 
gained the right to work State lands. We remember the common 
references to these publicans in the New Testament, where they 
are regularly classified with " sinners." With them came Roman 
money-lenders, who enriched themselves by loaning money at 
high rates of interest to the numerous provincials who were 
obliged to borrow to pay the extortionate taxes claimed by 
the Roman governors. The publicans were themselves money- 
lenders, and all these men of money plundered the provinces 
worse than the greedy Roman governors themselves. As these 
people returned to Italy, there grew up a wealthy class such 
as had been unknown there before. 

Their ability to buy resulted in a vast import trade to supply 
the demand. From the Bay of Naples to the mouth of the 
Tiber the sea was white with Roman ships converging on the 
docks of Rome. The men who controlled all this traffic be- 
came wealthy merchants. To handle all the money in circula- 
tion, banks were required. During the Hannibalic War the 
first banks appeared at Rome occupying a line of booths on 
each side of the Forum. After 200 b.c. these booths gave 
way to a fine basilica (§ 732) like those which had appeared in 
the Hellenistic cities (Fig. 271,3). Here the new wealthy class 



World Domi7iion and Degeneracy 



555 



met to transact financial business, and here large companies 
were formed for the collection of taxes and for taking govern- 
ment contracts to build roads and bridges or to erect public build- 
ino's. Shares in such companies were daily sold, and a business 
like that of a modern 
stock exchange devel- 
oped in the Forum. 

Under these influ- 
ences Rome greatly 
changed. With in- 
creasing wealth and 
growing population, 
there was a great 
increase in the de- 
mand for dwellings. 
Rents at once rose, 
and land in the city 
greatly increased in 
value. A good form 
of paying investment 
was apartments for 
rent, and as the value 
of property rose, a 
larger return in rents 
could be secured by 
increasing the number 
of floors. Hence own- 
ers began to erect 
tall buildings with 
several stories, though these ancient '' skyscrapers " were 
never as tall as ours. It became necessary to limit their height 
by law, as we do, and when badly built, as they sometimes were, 
they fell down, as they have been known to do in our own cities. 

When a returned governor of Africa put up a showy new 
house, the citizen across the way who still lived in his father's 




Fig. 240. An 



Old Roman 
House 



Atrium- 



There was no attempt at beautiful archi- 
tecture, and the bare front showed no adorn- 
ment whatever. The opening in the roof, 
which lighted the atrium {§ 892), received 
the rainfall of a section of the roof sloping 
toward it, and this water collected in a pool 
built to receive it in the floor of the atrium 
below (Fig. 241, B), The tiny area, or garden, 
shown in the rear was not common. It was 
here that the later Romans added the Hel- 
lenistic peristyle (Fig. 242) 



891. Rome 
becomes a 
profitable 
real-estate 
center 



556 



Ancient Times 



892. The old- 
fashioned 
Roman 
house 




Fig. 241 



OF A Roman 
Peristyle 



House 



old house began to be dissatisfied with it. It was built of sun- 
dried brick, and, like the old setder's cabin of early America, it 
had but one room. In this room all the household life centered. 
The stool and spinning outfit of the wife and the bed of the 

citizen were each 
assigned to a comer, 
while the kitchen 
was simply another 
corner where the 
family meals were 
cooked over an open 
fire. There was no 
chimney, and the 
smoke passed out 
of a square hole in 
the middle of the 
roof. The whole 
place was so be- 
grimed by smoke 
that the room was 
called the atrium^ 
a word perhaps 
connected with the 
Latin word for 
^'black"(Fig. 240). 
Here, then, the fam- 
ily took their meals, 
here they slept, and 
here in full view of 
pots and ketdes, 
beds and tables, the master of the house received his friends 
and transacted his affairs with business or official callers. 

The Roman citizen of the new age had walked the streets of 
the Hellenistic cities. Indeed, he had long before been familiar 
with the comfort, luxury, and beauty with which the Greek 



The earliest Roman house had consisted of a 
single room, the atrium {A), with the pool for the 
rain water [B). Then a small alcove, or lean-to, 
was erected at the rear (C), as a room for the 
master of the house. Later the bedrooms on 
each side of the atrium were added. Finally, 
under the influence of Greek life (§ 893), the 
garden court {D and Fig. 242) with its surround- 
ing colonnaded porch (peristyle) (Fig. 208) and 
a fountain in the middle {E) was built at the 
rear. Then a dining room, sitting room, and 
bedrooms were added, which opened on this 
court, and being without windows, they were 
lighted from the court through the doors. In 
town houses it was quite easy to partition off 
a shop, or even a whole row of shops, along 
the front or side of the house, as in the Hel- 
lenistic house (Fig. 208). The houses of Pom- 
peii (Fig. 255) were almost ^11 built in this way 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 



557 



houses of Capua and Naples were filled (§§ 728 and 738). At 893. The 

. , . 1 r 1 • • 1 wealthy 

first he added bedrooms on either side of his atrium and an Roman's 
additional small room at its rear, as the master's office and pri- JJ^^s^"^^""^ 
vate room. Soon, however, even the enlarged atrium-house 




Fig. 242. Peristyle of a Pompeian House 
We must imagine ourselves standing with our backs toward the atrium 
(having immediately behind us the room C in Fig. 241). We look out 
into the court, the garden of the house (Fig. 241, Z>). The marble 
tables and statues and the marble fountain basin in the middle 
(Fig. 241, E), just as we see them here in the drawing, were all found by 
the excavators in their places, as they were covered by volcanic ashes 
over eighteen hundred years ago (Fig. 255). Here centered the family 
life, and here the children played about the court, brightened with 
flowers and the tinkling music of the fountains 

(Fig. 240) was not large enough, and behind it was added the 
Hellenistic court surrounded by its colonnaded porch (Figs. 241 
and 242), from which opened bedrooms, a dining room, a 
library, rest rooms, and at the rear the kitchen. As luxury in- 
creased a second story might be added to receive the bedrooms 



558 



Ancient Times 



894. The 

luxurious 
furnishings 
and adorn- 
ment of the 
wealthy Ro- 
man's house 



895. The 

new conven- 
iences and 
luxuries of 
the wealthy 
Roman 
household 



and perhaps the dining room also. The atrium then became a 
large and stately reception hall where the master of the house 
could display his wealth in statues, paintings, and other works 
of art — the trophies of war from the East. 

The old Roman houses had been unadorned and had con- 
tained nothing but the bare necessities. Carthaginian ambassa- 
dors had been much amused to recognize at successive dinners in 
Rome the same silver dishes which had been loaned around from 
house to house. Not long before the Carthaginian wars an ex- 
consul had been fined for having more than ten pounds' weight 
of silverware in his house. A generation later a wealthy Roman 
was using in his household silverware which weighed some ten 
thousand pounds. One of the Roman conquerors of Macedonia 
entered Rome with two hundred and fifty wagonloads of Greek 
statues and paintings. The general who crushed the ^^.tolians 
carried off over five hundred bronze and marble statues, while 
the destroyer of Carthage filled all Rome with Greek sculptures. 
A wealthy citizen in even so small a city as Pompeii paved a 
dining alcove with a magnificent mosaic picture of Alexander in 
battle (Fig. 202), which had once formed a floor in a splendid 
Hellenistic house in Alexandria. In the same way the finest 
furniture, hangings, and carpets of the East now began to adorn 
the houses of the wealthy in Rome. 

All those conveniences which we have found in the Hellenistic 
dwellings (§ 728) were likewise quickly introduced, such as pipes 
for mnning water, baths, and sanitary conveniences. The more 
elaborate houses were finally equipped with tile pipes conduct- 
ing hot air for warming the important rooms, the earliest sys- 
tem of hot-air heating yet found. The kitchen was furnished 
with beautiful bronze utensils, far better than those commonly 
found in our own kitchens (Fig. 243). On social occasions the 
food on the table included imported delicacies and luxuries, pur- 
chased at enormous expense. A jar of salted fish from the Black 
Sea cost seventy-five or eighty dollars, and the old-fashioned sena- 
tor Cato, in a speech in the Senate, protested against such 



World Dominion and Degejieracy 



559 



luxury, stating that " Rome was the only city in the world 
where such a jar of fish cost more than a yoke of oxen." 

Such luxury required a great body of household servants. 896. Numer- 
There was a doorkeeper at the front door (he was called '' jani- hoid^s^^tnts 
tor" from the Latin word ja/ma, meaning ''door"), and from chiefly slaves 




Fig. 243. Bronze Kitchen Utensils excavated at Pompeii 

This kitchen ware used by the cooks of Pompeii was found still lying 
in the kitchens of the houses as they were uncovered by the excavators. 
The pieces have been lettered, and the student will find it interesting to 
make a list of them by name, identifying them by letter and indicating 
their use as far as possible 



the front door inward there was a servant for every small duty 
in the house, even to the attendant who rubbed down the mas- 
ter of the house after his bath. Almost all these menials were 
slaves, but it was not always possible to secure a slave as cook, 
and a wealthy Roman would pay as much as five thousand 
dollars a year for a really good cook. 



56o 



Ancient Times 



897. Works 
of Greek art 
in Rome and 
their refining 
influence 



898. Helle- 
nistic archi- 
tecture in 
Rome; the 
basilica and 
the theater 



899. Andro- 
nicus and his 
translations 
of Greek 
literature into 
Latin (240- 
207 B.C.) 



While the effect of all this luxury introduced from the East 
was on the whole very bad, nevertheless the former plain, 
matter-of-fact, prosaic life of the Roman citizen was stimulated 
and refined both at home and in the Senate hall by the most 
beautiful creations of Greek genius. Even while eating his 
dinner, the commonplace citizen of Pompeii sat looking at the 
heroic death of the Persian nobles of Darius (Fig. 202). But 
there were never any Roman artists capable of producing such 
works as these. 

A Roman senator returning from Alexandria could not but 
feel that Rome, in spite of some new and modern buildings, 
was very plain and unattractive, with its simple temples and 
old public buildings ; and he realized that Alexandria was the 
greatest and most splendid city in the world. Roman emula- 
tion was aroused and forms of Hellenistic architecture, like the 
basilica on the Forum (§ 890), were beginning to appear in 
Rome. It was not long, too, before a Greek theater appeared, 
improved by the Romans with awnings to keep out the hot 
sunshine, a curtain in front of the stage, like ours, and seats 
in the orchestra circle where once the Greek chorus had sung 
(Plate VII, p. 560). 

At the close of the Sicilian War (241 B.C.) a Greek slave 
named Andronicus, who had been taken as a lad by the Romans 
when they captured the Greek city of Tarentum (§ 824), was 
given his freedom by his master at Rome. Seeing the interest 
of the Romans in Greek literature, he translated the Odyssey 
(§ 410) into Latin as a schoolbook for Roman children. For 
their elders he likewise rendered into Latin the classic trage- 
dies which we have seen in Athens (§ 579), and also a 
number of Attic comedies (§ 582). This worthy Greek, An- 
dronicus, was the first literary man in history to attempt 
artistic translations possessing literaiy finish. He was, there- 
fore, the founder of the art of literary translation. Through 
his work the materials and the forms of Greek literature 
began to enter Roman life. 






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World Dominion and Degeneracy 561 

The Romans had been accustomed to do very little in the 900. The old 
way of educating their children. There were no schools at first, Ronlan^ 
but the good old Roman custom had been for the father to in- schools 
struct his own children. Even when schools arose, there was 
no literature for the Roman lads to learn, as Greek boys had 
learned Homer and the other poets (§ 555). The Roman 
father's respect for law and order led him to have his son taught 
the "Twelve Tables" of the law, and recite them to the school- 
master, as English-speaking children are taught the Ten Com- 
mandments. Such schools had been very poorly equipped; 
some of them, indeed, were held in the open air in a side 
street or a corner of the Forum. At best they had met in 
a bare room belonging to a dwelling house, and there were no 
schoolhouses. 

Gradually parents began to send their children to the schools 901. Greek 
which the freed Greek slaves of Rome were beginning to open jn the new 
there. Moreover, there was here and there a household which p^ucation 

' in Kome 

possessed an educated Greek slave, like. Andronicus, who might 
become the tutor of the children, giving regular instruction and 
teaching his pupils to read from the new primer of Andronicus, 
as we may call his Latin translation of Homer. Now and then 
Greek teachers of renown appeared and lectured in Rome. 
Young Roman nobles thus gained the opportunity of studying . 
rhetoric and public speaking, which they knew to be of great 
practical use in the career of public office to which they all 
aspired. Indeed, it was not uncommon for a young Roman of 
station to complete his higher education in Athens itself (§ 762). 

As Rome gained control of Greece, the mingling of Greek 902. The 
and Roman life was increasingly intimate. When a thousand cultivated 
of the leading Achaeans were brought to Rome as hostages ^^^g!^" 
(§ 884), there was among them a Greek statesman of great Polybius 
refinement and literary culture named Polybius. He was taken 
into the family of the Scipios, traveled about with them on their 
great campaigns, and occupied a position of dignity and re- 
spect. He witnessed the destruction of both Carthage and 



562 



Ancient Times 



903. Greek 

foundations 
of Latin 
literature 



904. Rise 
of Latin 
literature 



Corinth, and finally wrote an immortal history, in Greek, of 
the great Roman wars. Such cultivated Greeks had a great 
influence on the finer Romans like the Scipios. Polybius tells 
how he stood with the younger Scipio and watched the burn- 
ing of Carthage, while his young Roman lord burst into tears 
and quoted Homer's noble lines regarding the destruction 
of Troy. 

Such familiarity with the only literature known to the Romans, 
such daily and hourly intimacy with cultivated Greeks, aroused 
the impulse toward literary expression among the Romans 
themselves. To be sure, the Latins, like all peasant peoples, 
had had their folk songs and their simple forms of verse, but 
these natural products of the soil of Latium soon disappeared 
as the men of Latin speech felt the influence of an already 
highly finished literature. Latin literature, therefore, did not 
develop along its own lines from native beginnings, as did 
Greek literature, but it grew up on the basis of a great inherit- 
ance from abroad. Indeed, we now see, as the Roman poet 
Horace said, that Rome, the conqueror, was herself conquered 
by the civilization of the Greeks. 

Poets and writers of history now arose in Italy, and educated 
Romans could read of the great deeds of their ancestors in long 
epic poems modeled on those of Homer. In such literature were 
gradually recorded the picturesque legends of early Rome, like 
the story of Romulus and Remus and similar tales (p. 484, note), 
extending down through the early kings (p. 497, note). It is 
from these sources, now no longer regarded as history, that the 
early history of Rome used to be drawn. The Greek comedies 
of Menander (§ 754) attracted the Romans greatly; imitat- 
ing these, the new Latin play writers, especially Eiautus (died 
about 184 B.C.) and Terence (died about 159 B.C.), produced 
very clever comedies caricaturing the society of Rome, to which 
the Romans listened with uproarious delight. Their production 
on the stage led to the highly developed theater buildings which 
we have already mentioned (§ 898). 



World Dominioji and Degeneracy 563 

As the new Latin literature grew, papyrus rolls bearing Latin 905. Publish- 
works were more and more common in Rome. Then publish- ^nd the^eTu- 
ers, in back rooms filled with slave copyists, began to appear ^^^^^ ^^^*^ 
in the city. One of the Roman conquerors of Macedon brought 
back the books of the Macedonian king, and founded the first 
private library in Rome. Wealthy Romans were now pro- 
viding library rooms in their houses. A group of literary 
men arose, including the finest of the Roman leaders, and no 
man could claim to belong to this cultivated world without 
acquaintance with a well-stocked library of Greek and Latin 
books. Such Romans spoke Greek almost if not quite as well 
as Latin. These educated men were finally in sharp contrast 
with the uneducated mass of the Roman people, and there 
thus arose the two classes, educated and uneducated — a 
distinction unknown in the days of the early farmer republic. 



Section 82. Degeneration in City and Country 

The new life of Greek culture and luxury brought with it 906. Corrupt- 
many evils. Even the younger Scipio, an ardent friend of Greek [Jf^the new^^^ 
literature and art, expressed his pained surprise at finding ^"^V'^^ laws 
Roman boys in a Greek dancing school, learning unwholesome travagance 
dances, just as many worthy people among us disapprove of 
the new dances now widely cultivated in America. Cato, one 
of the hardiest of the old-fashioned Romans, denounced the new 
culture and the luxury which had come in with it (§ 895). As 
censor he had the power to stop many of the luxurious new 
practices, and he spread terror among the showy young dandies 
and ladies of fashion in Rome. He and other Romans like him 
succeeded in passing law after law against expensive habits of 
many kinds, like the growing love of showy jewelry among 
the women, or their use of carriages where they formerly 
went on foot. But such laws could not prevent the slow cor- 
ruption of the people. The old simplicity, purity, and beauty 
of Roman family life was disappearing, and divorce was 



564 



Ancient Times 



907. Inability 
of the masses 
to appreciate 
Greek 
literature 



908. Gladi- 
atorial com- 
bats as a 
political 
influence 



909. Amphi- 
theater for 
gladiatorial 
combats, and 
circuses for 
chariot races 



becoming common. The greatest days of Roman character 
were past, and Roman power was to go on growing, without 
the restraining influence of old Roman virtue. 

This was especially evident in the lives of the uneducated and 
poorer classes also. To them, as indeed to the vast majority of 
all classes, Greek civilization was chiefly attractive because of 
the numerous luxuries of Hellenistic life. The common people 
had no comprehension of Greek civilization. At the destruction 
of Corinth, Polybius saw Roman soldiers shaking dice on a won- 
derful old Greek painting which they had torn down from the 
wall and spread out on the ground like an old piece of awning. 
When a cultivated Roman thought to gain popular favor by 
arranging a program of Greek instrumental music at a pub- 
lic entertainment, the audience stopped the performance and 
shouted to the musicians to throw down their instruments and 
begin a boxing match ! Contrast this with the Athenian public 
in the days of Pericles 1 

It was to Roman citizens with tastes like these that the 
leaders of the new age were obliged to turn for votes and for 
support in order to gain office. To such tastes, therefore, the 
Roman nobles began to appeal. Early in the Sicilian War with 
Carthage there had been introduced the old Etruscan custom 
of single combats between condemned criminals or slaves, who 
slew each other to honor the funeral of some great Roman. 
These combatants came to be called gladiators, from a Latin 
word gladiiis, meaning " sword." The delight of the Roman 
people in these bloody displays was such that the officials in 
charge of the various public feasts, without waiting for a 
funeral, used to arrange a long program of such combats in 
the hope of pleasing the people, and thus gaining their votes 
and securing election to future higher offices. 

These barbarous and bloody spectacles took place at first 
within a temporary circle of seats, which finally became a great 
stone structure especially built for the purpose. It was called 
an amphitheater, because it was formed by placing two {amphi) 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 565 

theaters face to face (Fig. 262). Soon afterward combats be- 
tween gladiators and wild beasts were introduced (headpiece, 
p. 549). The athletic contests which had so interested the 
Greeks were far too tame for the appetite of the Roman public. 
The chariot race, however, did appeal to the Romans, and they 
began to build enormous courses surrounded by seats for vast 
numbers of spectators. These buildings they called circuses. 

The common people of Rome were thus gradually debased 910. Distri- 
and taught to expect such public spectacles, sometimes lasting fr"e grain 
for days, as their share of the plunder from the great con- ^^^^uo^^'^' 
quests. At the same time, as their poverty increased, the free 
food once furnished them by the wealthy classes far exceeded 
what private donors w^ere able to give. It was therefore taken 
up by the State, which arranged regular distributions of grain 
to the populace. Vicious as this custom was, it was far from 
being so great an evil as the bribery which the candidates for 
office now secretly practiced. Laws passed to prevent the 
practice were of slight effect. The only Roman citizens who 
could vote were those who attended the assemblies at Rome, 
and henceforth we have only too often the spectacle of a 
Roman candidate controlling the government that ruled the 
world by bribing the little body of citizens who attended the 
Roman assemblies. 

All these practices enormously increased the expenses of a 911. Ex- 
political career. The young Roman, who formerly might have a poHtlcai 
demonstrated his ability and his worthy character in some minor 
office as a claim upon the votes of the community, was now service 
obliged to borrow money to pay for a long program of gladia- 
torial games. In secret he might also spend a large sum in 
bribing voters. If elected he received no salary, and in carry- 
ing on the business of his office he was again obliged to meet 
heavy expenses. For the Roman government had never been 
properly equipped with clerks, bookkeepers, and accountants; 
that is, the staff of public servants whom we call the '' civil 
service." The newly elected official, therefore, had to supply 



career; lack 
of a civil 



566 



Aficient Times 



912. Growth 
of self- 
interest; the 
unrepubhcan 
character of 
returned 
provincial 
ffovemors 



913. Growth 
of great es- 
tates ; decline 
of the small 
farms 



914. Cap- 
tives of war 
as slaves 



a staff of clerks at his own expense. Even a consul sat at 
home in a household room turned into an ofHce and carried 
on government business with his own clerks and accountants, 
of whom one was usually a Greek. 

The Roman politician now sought office, in order that through 
it he might gain the influence which would bring him the governor- 
ship of a rich province. If he finally gained his object, he often 
reached his province burdened with debts incurred in winning 
elections in Rome. But the prize of a large province was worth 
all it cost. Indeed, the consulship itself was finally regarded as 
merely a stepping-stone to a provincial governorship. When a 
retired provincial governor returned to Rome, he was no longer 
the simple Roman of the good old days. He lived like a prince 
and, as we have seen, he surrounded himself with royal luxury. 
These men of self-interest, who had held the supreme power 
in a province, were a menace to the republic, for they had 
tasted the power of kings without the restraints of Roman law 
and Roman republican institutions to hamper them. 

But the evils of the new wealth were not less evident in the 
coimtry. It was not thought proper for a Roman senator or 
noble to undertake commercial enterprises or to engage in any 
business. The most respectable form of wealth was lands. 
Hence the successful Roman noble bought farm after farm, 
which he combined into a great estate or plantation. The capi- 
talists who had plundered the provinces did the same. Look- 
ing northward from Rome, the old Etruscan country was now 
made up of extensive estates belonging to wealthy Romans of 
the city. Only here and there were still to be found the little 
farms of the good old Roman days. Large portions of Italy 
were in this condition. The small farm seemed in a fair way 
to disappear as it had done in Greece (§ 626). 

It was impossible for a wealthy landowner to work these 
great estates with free, hired labor. Nor was he obliged to 
do so. From the close of the Hannibalic War onward the 
Roman conquests had brought to Italy great numbers of 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 567 

captives of war from Carthage, Spain, Gaul, Macedonia, Greece, 
and Asia Minor. These unhappy prisoners were sold as slaves. 
The coast of the Adriatic opposite Italy alone yielded one 
hundred and fifty thousand captives. An ordinary day laborer 
would bring about three hundred dollars at auction, a crafts- 
man or a good clerk was much more valuable, and a young 
woman who could play the lyre would bring a thousand dollars. 
The sale of such captives was thus enormously profitable. We 
have already seen such slaves in the households at Rome. The 
estates of Italy were now filled with them. 

Household slavery w^as usually not attended with much hard- 915. Brutal 
ship, but the life of the slaves on the great plantations was plantation^ 
little better than that of beasts. Worthy and free-born men ^^^^^^ 
from the eastern Mediterranean were branded with a hot iron 
like oxen, to identify them forever. They were herded at night 
in cellar barracks, and in the morning were driven like half- 
stai-ved beasts of burden to work in the fields. The. green 
fields of Italy, where sturdy farmers once watched the grow- 
ing grain sown and cultivated by their own hands, were now 
worked by wretched and hopeless creatures who wished they 
had never been born. When the supply of captives from the 
wars failed, the Roman government winked at the practices 
of slave pirates, who carried on wholesale kidnaping in the 
^gean and eastern Mediterranean for years. They sold the 
victims in the slave market at Delos, whence they were brought 
by Roman merchants to Italy. 

Thus Italy and Sicily were fairly flooded with slaves. The 916. Slave 
brutal treatment which they received was so unbearable that at disorders 
various places in Italy they finally rose against their masters. 
Even , when they did not revolt, they were a grave danger to 
public safety. The lonelier roads of Italy were infested by 
slave herdsmen, lawless ancient cowboys who robbed and slew 
and in many districts made it unsafe to live in the country or 
travel the country roads. The conditions in Sicily were worse 
than in Italy. In central and southern Sicily the revolting 



568 Ajiciefit Times 

slaves gathered some sixty thousand in number, slew their 
masters, captured towns, and set up a kingdom. It required 
a Roman consul at the head of an army and a war lasting 
several years to subdue them. 

917. Hos- During the uprising of the slaves in Sicily the small farm 
the nch and" owners, free men, went about burning the fine villas of the 
the poor es- wealthy plantation proprietors. The slave rebellion therefore 
small farmers vvas a revelation of the hatred not only among the slaves but 

also among the poor farming class of freeme?i — the hatred 
toward the rich landowners felt by all the lower classes in the 
country, slave or free. The great conquests and the wealth 
they brought in had made the rich so much richer and the 
poor so much poorer that the two classes were completely 
thrust apart and they no longer had any common life. Italy 
was divided into two great social classes dangerously hostile to 
each other. The bulk of the population of Italy had formerly 
been small farmers, as we have seen. Let us examine the effect 
of the great wars on the small farmers. 

918. De- War seemed a great and glorious thing when we were fol- 
farms and lowing the brilliant victories of Hannibal and the splendid tri- 
itaiv bv^var ^mph of Scipio at Zama. But now we are to see the other side 

of the picture. Never has there been an age in which the ter- 
rible and desolating results of war^have so tragically revealed 
the awful cost of such glory. The happy and industrious fami- 
lies cultivating the little farms which dotted the green hills and 
plains of Italy had now been helplessly scattered by the storms 
of war, as the wind drives the autumn leaves. The campaigns 
of Hannibal left southern Italy desolate far and wide, and 
much of central Italy was in little better condition. These 
devastated districts left lying waste were never again cultivated, 
and slowly became pasture lands. In regions untouched by 
invasion, fathers and elder sons had been absent from home 
for years holding their posts in the legion, fighting the battles 
which brought Rome her great position as mistress of the 
world. If the soldier returned he often found the monotonous 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 569 

round of farm duties much too tedious after his adventurous 
life of war abroad. Leaving the plow, therefore, he returned 
to his place in the legion to resume the exciting life of war and 
plunder under some great leader whom he loved. Home life 
and wholesome country influences were undermined and broken 
up. The mothers, left to bring up the younger children alone, 
saw the family scattered and drifting away from the little farm, 
till it was left forsaken. 

Too often as the returning soldier approached the spot where 919. The 
he was born he no longer found the house that had sheltered bought^up' 
his childhood. His family was gone and his little farm, sold for ^| wealthy 
debt, had been bought up by some wealthy Roman of the city owners 
and absorbed into a great plantation like those which the 
Romans had found surrounding Carthage (§ 837). His neigh- 
bors, too, had disappeared and their farms had likewise gone 
to enlarge the rich man's great estate. Across the hills on a 
sunny eminence he saw the stately villa, the home of the 
Roman noble, who now owned the farms of all the surround- 
ing country. He cursed the wealth which had done all this, 
and wandered up to the great city to look for free grain from 
the government, to enjoy the games and circuses, and to in- 
crease the poor class already there. 

Or if he found his home and his little farm uninjured, and was 920. Inability 
willing to settle down to work its fields as of old, he was soon JJ, compeS 
aware that the hordes of slaves now cultivating the great planta- J^^^j-l^^^ 
tions around him were producing grain so cheaply, that when he cheap im- 
had sold his harvest he had not received enough for it to enable 
him and his family to live. At the same time the markets of 
Italy were filled with cheap grain from Sicily, Africa, and Egypt- 
With this imported grain often given away by the government, 
he could not compete, and slowly he fell behind ; he borrowed 
money, and his debts increased. Forced to sell the little farm 
at last, he too wandered into Rome, where he found thousands 
upon thousands of his kind, homeless, embittered, and dependent 
upon the St^te for food, 



570 



Ancient Times 



921. Degen- 
eration and 
discontent 
in Italy 



922. Eco- 
nomic and 
agricultural 
decline in 
Greece 



923. Decline 
of Hellenistic 
civilization 



The sturdy farmer-citizens who had made up the bulk of 
the citizenship of Rome, the yeomanry from whom she had 
drawn her splendid armies, — these men who had formed the 
very substance of the power upon which the Roman Senate 
had built up its world empire, were now perishing. After the 
Macedonian wars the census returns showed a steady decline in 
the number of citizens of the republic in Italy. At the same time 
there was serious discontent among the cities of the allies in 
Italy because they had never been given full citizenship. They 
saw the government of a world empire in the hands of a corrupt 
Senate and a small body of more and more brutalized citizens 
at Rome, and they demanded their share in the control of the 
great empire to whose armies they had contributed as many 
troops as the citizens of the Republic had done. 

The wealth and power which Roman world dominion had 
gained had thus brought Rome and Italy to the verge of de- 
struction. Nor was the situation any better in the most civi- 
lized portions of the empire outside of Italy, and especially in 
Greece. Under the large plantation system, introduced from 
Asia Minor, where it had grown up under the Persians (§ 269), 
the Greek farmers had disappeared (§ 626), as those of Italy 
were now beginning to do. Add to this condition the robberies 
and extortions of the Roman taxgatherers and governors, the 
continuous slave raids of the a^gean pirates, whose pillaging 
and kidnaping the Roman Republic criminally failed to prevent, 
the shift of Greek commerce eastward (§ 724), and we have 
reasons enough for the destruction of business, of agriculture, 
and of prosperity in the Greek world. 

But that wondrous development of higher civilization which 
we found in the Hellenistic world (Chap. XXI) was likewise 
showing signs of decline. The sumptuous buildings forming 
the great home of science in Alexandria (§ 743) now repre- 
sented little more than the high aims once cherished and sup- 
ported by the Macedonian kings of Egypt. For when such 
State support failed, with its salaries and pensions to scientists 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 571 

and philosophers, the line of scientists failed too. Hence we 
see how largely science in the Hellenistic Age was rooted in 
the treasuries of the Hellenistic kings, rather than in the minds 
of the Greek race as it had been of old, when for sheer love of 
knowledge the Greek philosopher carried on his studies without 
such support. 

The Mediterranean was now the home of Greek civilization 924. Failure 
in the East and of Roman civilization in the West, but the fail- government 
ure of the Roman Senate to organize a successful government J^grraneaif ^^ 
for the empire they had conquered, — a government even as world ; peril- 

1 -rx • /c \ I- r M ous situation 

good as that of Persia under Darius (§ 286), — this failure had of civilization 

brought the whole world of Mediterranean civilization perilously 

near destruction. In the European background beyond the 

Alpine frontiers, there were rumblings of vast movements 

among the northern barbarians, threatening to descend as ol 

old and completely overwhelm the civilization which for over 

three thousand years had been slowly built up by Orientals and 

Greeks and Romans in the Mediterranean world. It now 

looked very much as if the Roman State was about to perish, 

and with it the civilization which had been growing for so many 

centuries. Was civilized man indeed to perish from the earth ? 

Or would the Roman State be. able to survive and to preserve 

civilization from destruction ? 

Rome was a city-state. The finest fruits of civilization in 925. The 
art, literature, science, and thought had been produced under city-state in 
the government of city-states, as we have seen (§ 767). But ^"^^^rnme t 
among the Greeks this very limited form of state had out- 
lived its usefulness and had over and over again proved its 
inability to organize and control successfully a larger world, 
that is, an empire. The city-state of the Roman Republic 
had now also demonstrated that its limited machinery of 
government was quite unfitted to rule successfully the vast 
Mediterranean world which it was now endeavoring to con- 
trol. Would it be able to transform itself into a great im- 
perial State, with all the many offices necessary to give 



57' 



Ancient Times 



926. The re- 
sponsibility 
of Rome to 
organize and 
defend the 
civilization 
of the Medi- 
terranean 
world 



successful government to the peoples and nations surrounding 
the Mediterranean ? Would it then be able to do for the Medi- 
terranean world what the oriental empires had once done for a 
world equally large in Western Asia and Egypt ? 

We stand at the point where the civilization of the Hellen- 
istic world began to decline, after the destruction of Carthage 
and Corinth (146 B.C.). We are now to watch the Roman 
people in the deadly internal struggle which we have seen 
impending between rich and poor. They had at the same time 
to continue their rule of the Mediterranean world as best they 
could, while the dangerous internal transformation was going 
on. In the midst of these grave responsibilities they had also 
to face the barbarian hordes of the North. In spite of all these 
threatening dangers, we shall see them gaining the needed 
imperial organization which enabled the Roman State to hurl 
back the Northern barbarians, to hold the northern frontiers for 
five hundred years, and thus to preserve the civilization which 
had cost mankind so many centuries of slow progress — the 
civilization which, because it was so preserved, has become our 
own inheritance to-day. This achievement of Rome we are now 
to follow in the final chapters of the story of the ancient world. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 80, As mistress of the western Mediterranean world, 
what was to be Rome's attitude toward the other nations of the Med- 
iterranean? Why was Rome bound to subdue Philip of Macedon.? 
Describe the struggle between Rome and Macedon. By extending 
her power over Macedon, with what other eastern empire was Rome 
in contact? Describe the struggle between Rome and the Seleucid 
Empire. What then happened to Macedon ? to the Greeks ? What 
two splendid cities were destroyed in the same year by the Romans? 
What can you say of the rapidity of the Roman conquests ? Describe 
the task of government now confronting Rome. 

Section 81. Had the Romans any experience in governing prov- 
inces ? Describe the rule of the usual Roman governor. What can 
you say of the increase of Roman wealth ? What was the effect on 



World Dominion and Degeneracy 



573 



business at Rome ? What kind of a house had the Roman formerly 
lived in? What kind did he now build? How was it furnished, and 
whence did its luxuries often come ? How did this compare with the 
situation before the Carthaginian wars ? What can you say of the serv- 
ants in a wealthy household ? Describe the effect of Greek works 
of art in Rome. Were there any Roman artists equal to those in 
Greece? Tell how Greek literature became known in Rome, De- 
scribe the old Roman schools. How did educated Greeks affect 
teaching in Rome? Tell about Polybius. How did Latin literature 
arise ? What can you say of libraries and the educated class ? 

Section 82. How was the new luxury affecting Roman Hfe? 
What were the tastes of the ordinary Roman? Describe the rise of 
gladiatorial combats. What can you say about the expenses of a 
pohtical career? What was happening to the small farms ? Describe 
slavery on the large estates ; slave revolts. Describe the effect of the 
wars on the small farmers ; the effect of the large estates and cheap 
grain. Describe the situation of Italy as a whole; of Greece and 
■ the yEgean world. What was the situation of Hellenistic civilization 
as a whole? How then had Roman leadership of the Mediterranean 
world succeeded thus far? Did a city-state possess the organization 
fitted to rule a great empire? What three great tasks faced the 
Roman government : first in Italy, second in the whole Mediterra- 
nean world, and third on the northern and eastern frontiers ? 

Note. The sketch below shows us a comer of a Roman library. The books 
are ail in the form of rolls (Fig. 191), arranged in large pigeonhole sections like 
rolls of wall paper, with the ends pointing outward and bearing tags containing 
the titles of the books. Thus the librarian was quickly able to find a given book 
or to return it to the shelves at the proper place, as he is engaged in doing in 
this relief. 






CHAPTER XXVI 

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE END OF 
THE REPUBLIC 

Section 83. The Land Situation and the Beginning 
OF THE Struggle between Senate and People 



927. The 

dangerous 
situation to 
be met by 
the Senate 



We must now recall the problems noticed at the close of 
the last chapter, demanding settlement by the Roman Senate. 
In Italy there was in the first place the perilous condition of 
the surviving farmers and the need of increasing in some way 
their numbers and their farms. Equally dangerous was the 
discontent of the Italian allies, who had never been given the 
vote or the right to hold office. The problems outside of Italy 
were not less pressing. They were, likewise, two in number. 
There was first the thoroughgoing reform of provincial govern- 
ment and the creation of a system of honest and successful 
administration of the great Roman Empire. And second there 
was the settlement of the frontier boundaries of the Em- 
pire and the repulse of the invading barbarians who were 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the two sides of a coin issued by 
Brutus, one of the leading assassins of Julius Caesar (§ 969). On one side the 
coin bears the head of Brutus, accompanied by his name and the title Imperator 
(abbreviated to IMP). On the other side are two daggers, intended to recall the 
assassination of Caesar, and between them appears the cap of liberty, to suggest 
the liberty which the Romans supposedly gained by his murder. In order that 
the meaning of all this might be perfectly clear, there appears, below, the inscrip- 
tion EID MAR, which means the Ides of March (the Roman term for the 
fifteenth of March), the date of Caesar's murder (§ 969). 

574 



A Century of Revolution 575 

threatening to crush the Mediterranean world and its civilization, 
as the prehistoric Greeks had crushed yEgean civilization (§ 380). 

The Senate which was to meet this dangerous situation had 928. Short- 
been in practical control of the Roman government since the the"senate 
days of the Samnite War. The senators now formed an oligarchy f"^ ]^^^.^\^ 

^ ■' legal basis for 

of selfish aristocrats as in the Greek cities (§ 618). Yet there their power 
were no laws which had created the undisputed power of the 
Senate. It was merely by their great prestige and their com- 
bined influence as leading men and former magistrates (§ 811) 
that they maintained the control of the State. The legal power 
of the Roman State really rested in the hands of the Roman 
people, as they gathered in their assemblies (§ 806), and this 
power had never been surrendered to the Senate by any vote 
or any law. 

The crying needs of the farming class in Italy failed to pro- 929. The 
duce any effect upon the blinded and selfish aristocrats of the of new farms 
Senate as a whole. Even before the Hannibalic War the need farme?s?nd 

of newly distributed farm lands was sorely felt. Led by the the opening 
-^ -^ -^ of the Strug- 

brave Flaminius, who afterward as consul fell at the head of gle between 

his army in Hannibal's ambush at Trasimene (§ 862), the people ^'^ 
Assembly had passed a law in defiance of the Senate, pro- 
viding for a distribution of public lands which the senators 
desired for themselves and their friends of the noble class. 
As a result Flaminius was always hated by the senatorial party, 
and ever after was regarded as the popular leader who opened 
the struggle between people and Senate, and having thus shown 
the people their power, had begun the dangerous policy of 
allowing the unstable populace to control the government. 
The conflict between Senate and people had subsided during 
the Hannibalic War, but when this great danger had passed, 
it would seem that a tribune named Licinius, who understood 
the needs of the people, had succeeded in having a law passed 
by the Assembly, which forbade any wealthy citizen from 
holding over five hundred acres of the public lands, or pas- 
turing more than a hundred cattle or five hundred shoep on 



5/6 



Ancient Times 



930. The 

absorption 
of the pubHc 
lands by the 
nobles 



931. Tiberius 
Gracchus, 
tribune 
(133 B.C.) 



these lands. Such was the power of the senatorial party, how- 
ever, that these Licinian laws had become a dead letter.^ 

In gaining control ot Italy, Rome had finally annexed about 
half of the peninsula, and no more land could now be taken 
without seizing that of the Italian' allies. About a decade 
before the destruction of Carthage and Corinth the last 
Roman colony had been founded. The only way to' secure 
new farms for assignment to landless farmers was by making 
the Licinian laws effective, that is, by taking and assigning 
to farmers the public lands already belonging to the State — 
what we call " government lands" in the United States. But for 
generations these lands had been largely held under all sorts 
of arrangements by wealthy men, and it was sometimes dif^- 
cult to decide whether a noble's estate was his legal property 
or merely public land which he was using. Under these cir- 
cumstances we can easily imagine with what stubbornness and 
anger great landholders of the senatorial party would oppose 
any effort to redistribute the public lands on a basis fair to all. 

Flaminius had taught the people their power (§ 929). Since 
then they had lacked a skillful leader. The unselfish patriot who 
undertook to become the leader of the people and to save Italy 
from destruction by restoring the farmer class was a noble named 
Tiberius Gracchus. He was a grandson of the elder Scipio, 
the hero of Zama, and his sister had married the younger 
Scipio. Elected tribune (133 B.C.), he used to address the 
people with passionate eloquence and tell them of their wrongs : 
" The beasts that prowl about Italy have holes and lurking 
places, where they may make their beds. You who fight and die 
for Italy enjoy only the blessings of air and light. These alone 
are your heritage. Homeless, unsettled, you wander to and fro 
with your wives and children. . . . You fight and die to give 
wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters of the 
world ; yet there is no clod of earth that you can call your own." 

1 The usually accepted earlier date for the Licinian laws (376 B.C.) is quite 
impossible ; nor is the date above suggested at all certain. 



A Century of RevoUitio7i S77 

As tribune, Tiberius Gracchus submitted to the Assembly 932. Land 
a law for the reassignment of public lands and the protection Tiberius 
and support of the farming class. It was a statesmanlike and Gracchus, 

^ ^ ^ and his death 

moderate law. ,It called for little, if anything, more than what (132 b.c.) 
was already demanded by the Licinian laws. It was an 
endeavor to do for Italy what Solon had done for Attica 
(§ 469), and was decidedly more moderate than the legis- 
lation of Solon. After a tragic struggle in which the new tribune 
resorted to methods not strictly legal, he succeeded in passing 
his law. In the effort to secure reelection, that he might insure 
the e?ifo7'cement of his law, Gracchus was slain by a mob of 
senators, who rushed out of the Senate house and attacked 
the tribune and his supporters. This was the first murder- 
ous deed introducing a century of revolution and civil war 
(133-31 B.C.), which terminated in the destruction of the 
Roman Republic. 

Ten years after the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus, his 933. Struggle 
younger brother Gaius gained the same office (123 B.C.). He Gracchus 
not only took up the struggle on behalf of the landless farmers, g ^* *^^ , 

but he made it his definite object to attack and weaken the his death 

(123- 
Senate. He endeavored to enlist on the side of the people 121 b.c.) 

every possible enemy of the Senate. He therefore organized 
the capitalists and men of large business affairs, who, of course, 
were not senators. Because of their wealth they had always 
furnished their own horses and served in the army as horse- 
men. They were therefore called knights ; or, as a group, the 
equestrian order. Gaius Gracchus secured the support of these 
men by obtaining for them the right to collect the taxes in 
Asia, and he gave them great power by founding a court made 
up of knights for the trial of dishonest and extortionate Roman 
governors appointed by the Senate. At the same time he pro- 
posed to give to the Italian allies the long-desired full citizen- 
ship — a proposal which angered the people as much as it did 
the Senate. His efforts finally resulted in a riot in which Gaius 
Gracchus was killed, as his brother had been (121 B.C.). 



5/8 Ancient Times 

Section 84. The Rise of One-Man Power : 
Marius and Sulla 

934. Unre- The weakness in the reforms of the Gracchus brothers lay 
popuS ° chiefly in their unavoidable reliance upon votes ; that is, upon 
support |-|^g unstable support of the people at the elections and at the 

meetings of the popular assembly. It was diflicult to hold the 
interest of the people from election to election. In the Gracchan 
elections, when work on the farms was pressing, the countr}-- 
people around Rome would not take the time to go up to the 
city and vote, although they were the very ones to be bene- 
fited by the Gracchan laws. The work of Flaminius, and 
especially of the Gracchi, had taught the people to look 
up to a leader. This tendency was the beginning of one- 
man power. But the leader to whom the people now turned 
was not a magistrate, as the Gracchi had been, but a military 
w?n?na?ider. 

935. The war Meantime the blindness and corruption of the Senate offered 
tha, ancf the the people more than one opportunity for gaining power. The 
appointment rnisrule of the Senate abroad was now so scandalous that the 

of the peo- 
ple's com- people seized this opportunity. In a war between Rome and 

against the Jugurtha, ruler of the great kingdom of Numidia beside Carthage 
in North Africa, the African king, knowing the weakness of the 
Romans of this age, succeeded in bribing the consul, and thus 
inflicted a crushing defeat on the Roman army. The war then 
dragged disgracefully on. These events so incensed the people 
of Rome, that in spite of the fact that the Senate's commander, 
an able and honest consul named Metellus, had finally met and 
defeated Jugurtha, the Assembly passed a law appointing their 
own general to supersede Metellus. The people thus assumed 
charge of a great foreign enterprise, and, what was more im- 
portant, the people by this action seized control of the army. The 
Senate was unable to prevent the Assembly's action from go- 
ing into effect. The interests of the people were no longer 
dependent wholly upon civil magistrates, changing from election 



Senate 



A Century of Revolution '579 

to election, but upon military force under a leader who might 
be given a long command. 

The commander on whom the people relied was himself a 936. Marius, 

111 1 u the people's 

man of the people, named Marius, who had once been a rough commander, 
plowboy. He was fortunately an able soldier, and he quickly g^rtha'an'd 
brought the war with Jugurtha to an end, after the Senate's the German 

c> u3.rD3.ri3.ns 

leaders had allowed the war to drift on for six years. When 
■the news of his victory reached Rome the people promptly 
elected him consul for the second time, before his return. In 
104 B.C. he returned to Rome, and the people beheld the cap- 
tive Numidian king led through the streets in chains. Meantime 
the two powerful tribes of German barbarians, the Cimbrians 
and the Teutons, combined with Gauls, had been shifting south- 
ward and crossing the northern frontiers of Rome. In Gaul 
and on the Gallic frontiers six Roman armies, one after another, 
had been disastrously defeated. It looked as if the Roman 
legions had at last met their match. There was great anxiety in 
Rome, and the people determined to reelect Marius consul and 
send him against the terrible northern barbarians. Meeting the 
Teutons in southern Gaul, the people's hero not only defeated but 
practically destroyed the first German host (102 B.C.). Shortly 
afterward, when the Cimbrians had finally succeeded in cross- 
ing the Alps into the Po valley, Marius met and crushed them 
also. A soldier of the people had saved Rome. 

Marius was not only an able soldier, but he was also a great 937. Marius 

u- u abohshes 

organizer, and he introduced changes in the Roman army which property 
were epoch-making both in the history of warfare and in the "^"^f'^^^^l^y 
political history of Rome. In order to secure sufficient men ^fj^^^^^^^^^ 
for the legions, he abolished the old custom of allowing only professional 
citizens of property to serve in the army, and he took in the ^™^ 
poor and the penniless. Such men soon became professional 
soldiers. As once in Greece (§ 629), so now in Rome, the day 
of the citizen-soldier had passed. The long wars had made many 
a Roman citizen practically a professional soldier, as we have 
noticed. The army of Marius was largely a professional army, 



58o 



Ancient Times 



938. The 

cohort as the 
tactical unit, 
devised by 
Marius 



939. Failure 
of Marius as 
a statesman ; 
the Senate 
regains 
leadership 



and although the obligation to serve in the army still rested on 
every Roman citizen, it was less and less rigidly enforced. 

The youths who permanently took up the life of the soldier 
could be so well drilled that they were able to carry out maneu- 
vers impossible for an army made up of citizens serving for 
a limited time. Marius therefore completely reorganized the 
legion. He raised its numbers from forty-five hundred to six 
thousand. He divided each six thousand into ten groups of 
six hundred each. Such a body of six hundred was called a 
cohort. It formed the unit in the shifting maneuvers, which, as 
we have seen, meant victory or defeat in battle (§874). So 
perfectly drilled and so fearless were these units, that the 
cohorts would move about the field with the precision of clock- 
work and with complete confidence in the plan of the com- 
mander, just as the individuals in a perfectly trained football 
squad respond almost automatically to the signal. The pro- 
duction of the cohort, as we shall see, made it possible to 
complete the final chapter in the development of the art of. 
warfare in ancient times. 

But in spite of his ability as a soldier and as an army organ- 
izer, Marius was not a statesman. Having risen from the ranks, 
he was at heart a rough Roman peasant. He hated the aristo- 
crats of the city ; he did not know how to deal with them, nor 
did he understand the leadership of the popular party which had 
given him his great military commands. Elected consul for the 
sixth time in the year 100 B.C., he failed utterly to control the 
leaders of his party in the political struggles in Rome. They went 
to such excesses that two of them were slain in a riot. Moderate 
men were estranged from the cause of the people, and the Sen- 
ate gained the upper hand again. Marius retired in disgrace, but 
his leadership had revealed to the people how they might gain 
control over the Senate by combining on a military leader, 
whose power, therefore, did not consist in the peaceful enforce- 
ment of the laws and usages of the Roman State, but in the 
illegal application of military force, 



A Centtiry of Revolution 581 

Meantime the struggle between Senate and people was com- 940. Dis- 
plicated by the increasing discontent of the Italian allies. They and°discon-^^^ 
had contributed as many troops to the army which conquered *-^"*. *^^ *5l? 
the Empire as had Rome herself, and now they were refused 
any voice in the control of that Empire or any share in the 
immense wealth which they saw the Romans drawing from it. 
The wise and liberal policy of the ancient Senate in freely 
granting citizenship to communities in newly acquired Italian 
territory (§ 814) had been long abandoned, reminding us of 
the Athenians in the later years of Pericles (§ 588). Before 
the different communities of Italy had had time to merge into 
a nation (§ 828), they had been forced into a long series of 
foreign wars which had built up the Empire. But the posses- 
sion of this Empire had corrupted and blinded the Senate and 
the governing community at Rome. By this sudden wealth and 
power Rome had been raised above all feeling of fellowship 
with the other communities of Italy. The great peninsula was 
still filled with disunited communities (§ 829), and there now 
rested upon Rome the obligation to make Italy a nation. 

There were, happily, some Roman leaders with the insight of 941. Blind 
statesmen, who perceived this great need and who planned that nessVf\he 
the Italian allies should receive citizenship. Amons: them was Romans and 

^ ^ assassination 

a wealthy, popular, and unselfish noble named Drusus, who of Drusus 
gained election as tribune and began measures leading to the 
enfranchisement of the Italian allies. But so fierce and savage 
was the opposition aroused, that this great Roman statesman 
was stabbed in the street. The opposition to Drusus and his 
plans was by no means confined to the Senate. The common 
people of Rome were likewise jealous of their ancient privileges, 
and the wealthy men of the new equestrian order were equally 
unwilling to share their opportunities of plundering the prov- 
inces. The Italian allies therefore soon saw the hopelessness 
of an appeal to Rome for their rights. Immediately after the 
assassination of Drusus the leading Italian peoples of central 
^nd southern Italy revolted and formed . a new state and 



582 



Ancient Times 



943- Rise 
of Sulla ; a 
consul sus- 
tains the 
Senate and 
defeats the 
will of the 
people with 
an army 



government of their own, with a capital at a central town 
which they impressively renamed Italica (90 B.C.). 

In the war which followed, the army of Rome was at first 
completely defeated, and although this reverse was in a measure 
retrieved, the strength of the allies could not be broken. Seeing 
the seriousness of the situation, the Roman politicians tardily 
took action and granted the desired citizenship. The Italian 
alliance then broke up, and the Italian communities reentered 
the Roman State. Yet they entered it as distant wards of the 
city on the Tiber. The citizens residing in these distant wards 
could not vote or take any part in the government unless they 
journeyed to Rome to do so. This situation was of course an 
absurdity, and again illustrated the inability of an ancient 
city-state to furnish the machinery of government for a large 
nation, not to mention a world empire. Nevertheless, Italy was 
on the way to become a nation unified in government and 
in speech. 

A very threatening war was now breaking out in Asia Minor. 
Wealthy senators and other Romans of the moneyed class who 
ruled Rome had many financial interests in this region, and 
this led them to dread a war there, and to stop it as soon as 
possible. Among the officers of Marius there had been a very 
successful soldier named Sulla, who was chosen consul for the 
year after the war with the allies. The Senate now selected him 
to command in Asia Minor. But the leaders of the people would 
not accept the Senate's appointment, and just as in the war 
against Jugurtha, they passed a law electing Marius to command 
in the coming Asia Minor war. Now Marius had no army at 
the moment, but Sulla was still at the head of the army he 
had been leading against the Italian allies. He therefore ignored 
the law passed by the people, and marched on Rome with his 
troops. For the first time a Roman consul took possession of 
the city by force. The Senate was now putting through its will 
with an army, as the Assembly had before done. Sulla forced 
through a new law by which the Assembly would always be 



A Century of Revolution 583 

obliged to secure the consent of the Senate before it could vote 
on any measure. Having thus destroyed the power of the 
people legally to oppose the will of the Senate, Sulla marched 
off to his command in Asia Minor. 

The Senate had triumphed, but with the departure of Sulla 944. Resto- 
and his legions the people refused to submit. There was peip^e's con- 
fighting in the streets, and the senatorial troops fell upon the ^y°^ ^" Sulla's 

° ° ' ir ir absence; war 

new Italian citizens as they voted in the Forum and slew them and murder 

in the streets 

by hundreds. In the midst of these deeds of violence Marius, of Rome 
who had escaped to Africa, returned at the head of a body of 
cavalry. He joined the popular leaders, and, entering Rome, he 
began a frightful massacre of the leading men of the senatorial 
party. The Senate, the first to sow seeds of violence in the 
murder of Tiberius Gracchus (§ 932), now reaped a fearful 
harvest. Marius was elected consul for the seventh time, but 
he died a few days after his election (86 B.C.). Meantime tke 
people ruled in Rome until the day of reckoning which was 
sure to come on the return of Sulla. 

The war which had called Sulla to Asia Minor was due to 945. Sulla's 
the genius of Mithradates, the gifted young king of Pontus against^" 
(see map IV, p. 552). He had prospered by taking advantage of 
Roman misrule in the East. He had rapidly extended his king- 
dom to include a large part of Asia Minor, and such was the 
deep-seated discontent of the Greek cities under Roman rule 
that he was able to induce the Greek states of Asia Minor and 
some in Greece to join him in a war against Rome. Even 
Athens, which had suffered least, supported him. The Romans, 
busily occupied with civil war at home, were thus suddenly 
confronted by a foe in the East who seemed as dangerous as 
Carthage had once been. Sulla besieged Athens (see descrip- 
tion of cut, p. 425), recovered European Greece, and drove the 
troops of Mithradates back into Asia. Thereupon crossing to 
Asia Minor he finally concluded a peace with Mithradates. He 
laid an enormous indemnity of twenty thousand talents on the 
Greek cities of Asia Minor. Then leaving them to the tender 



Mithradates 



k 



584 



Ancient Times 



946. Sulla 
defeats the 
armies of 
the Roman 
people and 
is made Dic- 
tator (82 B.C.) 



947. Sulla 
deprives the 
people of po- 
litical power 
and gives 
the Senate 
supreme 
leadership 
(82-79 B.C.) 



mercies of the Roman money-lenders and to the barbarous 
raids of the eastern pirates, Sulla returned to Rome. 

On the way thither the Roman army of Sulla defeated the 
Roman armies of the people, one after another. Finally, out- 
side the gates of the city, Sulla overthrew the last army of the 
people and entered Rome as master of the State, without any 
legal power to exercise such mastery. By means of his army, 
however, he forced his own appointment as Dictator, with far 
greater powers than any Dictator had ever before possessed 
(82 B.C.). His first action was to begin the systematic slaughter 
of the leaders of the people's party and the confiscation of their 
property. Rome passed through another reign of terror like 
that which followed Marius's return. The hatreds and the many 
debts of revenge which Sulla's barbarities left behind were 
later a frequent source of disturbance and danger to the 
State (§951). 

Then Sulla forced the passage of a whole series of new laws 
which deprived the Assembly of the people and the tribunes of 
their power, and gave the supreme leadership of the State to 
the Senate, the body which had already so disastrously failed 
to guide Rome wisely since the great conquests. Some lesser 
reforms of value Sulla did introduce, but a policy based on the 
supremacy of the Senate was doomed to failure. To Sulla's 
great credit he made no attempt to gain permanent control of 
the State, but on the completion of his legislation he retired to 
private life (79 B.C.). 



Section 85. The Overthrow of the Republic 
pompey and c^sar 



948. The 
people elect 
Pompey 
consul and 
regain po- 
litical power 
(70 B.C.) 



Following the death of Sulla a year after his retirement, 
agitation for the repeal of his hateful laws, which bound the 
people and the tribunes hand and foot, at once began. To 
accomplish this the people had now learned that they must 
make use of a military leader. The Senate had been ruling 



A Century of Revolution 585 

nine years in accordance with Sulla's laws when the popular 
leaders found the militaiy commander whom they needed. He 
was a former officer of Sulla, named Pompey, who had recently 
won distinction in Spain, where he had been sent by the Senate 
to overthrow a still unsubdued supporter of Marius. He was 
elected consul (70 B.C.) chiefly because he agreed to repeal the 
obnoxious laws of Sulla, and he did not fail to carry out his 
promise. This service to the people now secured to Pompey a 
military command of supreme importance. 

Such was the neglect of the Senate to protect shipping that 949. Pirates 
the pirates of the East, chiefly from Cilicia, had overrun the ^eVrane^n '^'' 
whole Mediterranean (§qic;). They even appeared at the andPomp^y's 

^ -^ ^ ' J i J^ appointment 

mouth of the Tiber, robbing and burning. They kidnaped against them 

Roman officials on the Appian Way, but a few miles from 

Rome, and they finally captured the grain supplies coming in to 

Rome from Egypt and Africa. In 67 B.C. the Assembly of 

the people passed a law giving Pompey supreme command in 

the Mediterranean and for fifty miles back from its shores. He 

was assigned two hundred ships and allowed to make his army 

as large as he thought necessary. No Roman commander had 

ever before held such far-reaching and unrepublican power. 

In forty days Pompey cleared the western Mediterranean of 950. Exter- 
pirates. He then sailed eastward, and in seven weeks after his the"pirates, 
arrival in the ^gean he had exterminated the Cilician sea Mkhradate? 
robbers likewise and burned their docks and strongholds, and conquests 

rr^i 1 • 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 ^'^ *^h^ Orient 

1 he next year his command was enlarged to mclude also the by Pompey 
leadership in a new war against Mithradates which had been ^ "^ ^ ^'^'' 
going on with satisfactory results under Lucullus, a Roman 
commander of the greatest ability. Lucullus had already broken 
the power of Mithradates and also of the vast kingdom of 
Armenia, under its king, Tigranes. Pompey therefore had little 
difficulty in subduing Mithradates, and had only to accept the 
voluntary submission of Tigranes. He crushed the remnant of 
the kingdom of the Seleucids (§ 718) and made Syria a Roman 
province. He entered Jerusalem and brought the home of the 



586 



Ancient Times 



951. Rise of 
Caesar and 
his support 
of Catiline 
and Antony 



Jews under Roman control. Before he turned back, the legions 
under his leadership had marched along the Euphrates and had 
looked down upon the Caspian. There had been no such con- 
quests in the Orient since the Macedonian campaigns, and to 
the popular imagination Pompcy seemed a new Alexander 

marching in triumph through 
the East. 

Meantime a new popular 
hero had arisen at Rome. He 
was a nephew of Marius, 
named Julius Caesar (Eig. 244), 
born in the year 100 B.C., and 
thirty years old in Pompey's 
consulate. He had supported 
all the legislation against the 
laws of- Sulla and in favor of 
Pom.pey's appointment to his 
great command. He took up 
the cause of Marius, and ex- 
alted his memory in public 
speeches so that he quickly 
gained a foremost place among 
the leaders of the people. The 
hatreds aroused by Sulla's ex- 
ecutions and confiscations had 
left a great number of revenge- 
ful and dissatisfied men, who to no small extent made up the fol- 
lowing of Caesar. Among Caesar's political friends was a noble 
named Catiline. He was the leader of a good many undesirable 
followers, but Caesar was supporting him and another friend 
for election to the consulship. 

Popular distrust of Caesar's purposes, and Catiline's evil 
reputation, led to the defeat of Catiline and to the election 
of Cicero, a comparatively new man, but the ablest orator and 
the most gifted literary man of the age. By the formation of 




Fig. 244. Bust said to be a 
Portrait of Julius C^sar 

The ancient portraits commonly- 
accepted as those of Julius Caesar 
are really of uncertain identity 



A Century of Revohttion 587 

a new middle-class party from the Italian communities, which 952. The 
should stand between the Senate and the people, Cicero dreamed Catiline^and 
of a restoration of the old republic as it had once been. Cati- the success 

^ of the great 

line, meantime, burdened with debts and rendered desperate by orator Cicero 

the loss of the election, gathered about him all the dissatisfied 

bankrupts, landless peasants, Sullan veterans, outlaws, and slaves, 

the debased and lawless elements of Italy seeking an opportunity 

to rid themselves of debt or to better their situation. Foiled by 

Cicero in an attempt to seize violent control of the government, 

the reckless Catiline died fighting at the head of his motley 

following. Cicero's overthrow of Catiline brought him great 

power and influence and made his consulship (63 B.C.) one of 

brilliant success. Caesar, on the other hand, was suspected 

of connection with the uprising of Catiline. This suspicion, 

whether just or unjust, proved to be a serious setback in his 

political career. 

Just at this juncture Pompey returned to Italy clothed in 953. Return 

splendor as the great conqueror of the Orient. He made no JJ^^ triumvi- 

attempt to influence the political situation by means of his rate — Pom- 
^ , pey, Caesar, 

army, the command of which he relinquished ; but he needed and Crassus ; 

political influence to secure the Senate's formal approval of elected 
his arrangements in Asia Minor, and a grant of land for 
his troops. For two years the Senate refused Pompey these 
concessions. Meantime Caesar stepped forward in Pompey's 
support, and the two secured for their plans the support 
of a very wealthy Roman noble named Crassus. The plan 
was that Caesar should run for the consulship and, if suc- 
cessful, secure the two things which we have seen Pompey 
needed. This private alliance of these three powerful men 
(called a '' triumvirate ") gave them the control of the 
situation. As a result Caesar was elected consul for the year 
59 B.C. 

The consulship was but a step in Caesar's plans. Having 
secured for Pompey the measures which he desired, Caesar 
fearlessly put through new land laws for the benefit of the 



consul 
(59 B.C.) 



588 



Ancient Times 



954. Caesar 
secures the 
government 
of Gaul on 
both sides 
of the Alps 



955. Caesar's 
military skill 
and general 
plan of oper- 
ations in Gaul 



956. Caesar's 
conquest 
of Gaul 
(58-50 B.C.) 



people, and then provided for his own future career. It was 
clear to him that he must have an important military command 
in order to gain an army. He saw a great opportunity in the 
West, like that which had been given Pompey in the Orient. 
Rome still held no more than a comparatively narrow strip of 
land along the coast of w^hat is now southern France. On its 
north was a vast country occupied by the Gauls, and this region 
of Gaul was now sought by Caesar. He had no difficulty in 
securing the passage of a law which made him for five years 
governor of Illyria and of Gaul on both sides of the Alps, that 
is, the valley of the Po in northern Italy, which we remember 
had been occupied by the Gauls (§ 815), and also of further 
Gaul beyond the Alps, as just described. 

Cassar took charge of his new province early in 58 B.C., and 
at once show^ed himself a military commander of surpassing 
skill. Not only did he possess the keenest insight into the 
tactical maneuvers which win victory on the field of battle 
itself, but he also understood at a glance the resources and 
abilities of a people and their armies. He knew that the 
greatest problem facing a commander was to keep his army 
in supplies and to guard against moving it to a point where it 
was impossible either to carry with it the supplies for feeding 
it or to find them on the spot. So efficient was his own great 
organization that he knew he could carry such supplies more 
successfully than could the barbarian Gauls. He perceived that 
no great barbarian host could be kept long together in one place, 
because they did not possess the organization for carrying with 
them, or securing later, enough food to maintain them long. 
When the necessity of finding provisions had forced them to 
separate into smaller armies, then Cassar swiftly advanced and 
defeated these smaller divisions. 

By this general plan of operations in eight years of march 
and battle he subdued the Gauls and conquered their territory 
from the ocean and the English Channel eastward to' the Rhine. 
He drove out a dangerous invasion of Gaul by the Germans, 



view of the 
situation as 
a statesman 



A Cent7iry of Revohition 5S9 

and astonishing them by the skill and speed with which he built 
a bridge over the Rhine, he invaded their country and estab- 
lished the frontier of the new Gallic province at the Rhine. 
He even crossed the Channel and carried an invasion of Britain 
as far as the Thames. He added a vast dominion to the 
Roman Empire, comprising in general the territory of modern 
France and Belgium. We should not forget that his conquest 
brought Latin into France, as the ancestor from which French 
speech has descended (see map IV, p. 552). 

Caesar had shown himself at Rome a successful politician. 957. Caesar's 
In Gaul he proved his ability as a brilliant soldier. Was he 
also a great statesman, or was he, like Pompey, merely to seek 
a succession of military commands and to accomplish nothing 
to deliver Rome from being a cat's-paw of one military com- 
mander after another? Caesar's understanding of the situation 
at Rome was perfectly clear and had been so from the begin- 
ning. He was convinced that the foreign wars and the rule of 
the provinces had introduced into Roman government the ever- 
returning opportunity for a man of ability to gain military 
power which could not be controlled by the State. It was 
of no use to bring in a new political party, as Cicero hoped 
to do, and to pit mere votes against the flashing swords of the 
legions. For the old machinery of government furnished by 
the republic possessed no means of preventing the rise of one 
ambitious general after another to fight for control of the State 
as Marius and Sulla had done. The republic could therefore 
never again restore order and stable government for Italy 
and the empire. Herein Caesar showed his superiority as a 
statesman over both Sulla and Cicero. 

The situation therefore demanded an able and patriotic com- 958. Caesar 
mander with an army behind him who should make himself account^of^'^ 
the undisputed and permanent master of the Roman govern- ^ G2\\\c 
ment and subdue all other competitors. Consistently and stead- 
ily Caesar pursued this aim, and it is no reflection upon him to 
say that it satisfied his ambition to do so. One of his cleverest 



590 Anciejit limes 

moves was the publication of the story of his Gallic campaigns, 
which he found time to write even in the midst of dangerous 
marches and critical battles. The tale is narrated with the most 
unpretentious simplicity. Although it is one of the greatest 
works of Latin prose, the book was really a political pamphlet, 
intended to convey to the Roman people an indelible impression 
of the vast conquests and other services which they owed to 
their governor in Gaul. It did not fail of its purpose. At 
present it is the best-known Latin reading book for beginners 
in that language in the whole civilized world. 

959. Pompey When Caesar's second term as governor of Gaul drew near 
takes up the i^s end, his supporters in Rome, instructed by him, were arrang- 
cause of the jj^g £qj. j^jg second election to the consulship. The Senate was 

dreading his return to Italy and was putting forth every effort 
to prevent his reelection as consul. The experience in the time 
of Marius had taught the Senate what to fear when a victorious 
commander returned to Rome to avenge their opposition to the 
people. They must have a military leader like Sulla again. 
Meantime Crassus, the wealthy member of the triumvirate 
(§ 953), had been slain in a disastrous war against the Par- 
thians, beyond the Euphrates, and the group had broken up, 
thus freeing Pompey. In the midst of great confusion and 
political conflict in Rome, the leading senators now made offers 
to Pompey, in spite of the fact that he had received his great 
command from the Assembly of the people and had been a 
leader of the popular party. He was no statesman and had no 
plans for the future of the State. He was simply looking for 
a command. The result was that he undertook to defend the 
cause of the Senate and support the enemies of the people. 
What should have been a lawful political contest, again became 
a military struggle between two commanding generals, Caesar 
and Pompey, like that of Marius and Sulla a generation earlier. 

960. Csesar Caesar endeavored . to compromise with the Senate, but on 
of profes!^"^^ receiving as their reply a summons to disband his army, he had 
sionai soldiers ^^ hesitation as to his future action. The professional soldiers 



A Century of Revolution 59 1 

who now made up a Roman army had no interest in political 
questions, felt no responsibility as citizens, and were conscious 
of very little obligation or attachment to the State. On the 
other hand, they were usually greatly attached to their com- 
manding general. The veterans of Caesar's Gallic campaigns 
were unswervingly devoted to him. When he gave the word, 
therefore, his troops followed him on the march to Rome with- 
out a moment's hesitation, to draw their swords against their 
fellow Romans forming the army of the Senate under Pompey. 
Caesar and his troops at once crossed the Rubicon, the little 
stream which formed the boundary of his province toward 
Rome. Beyond this boundary Caesar had no legal right to lead 
his forces, and in crossing it he had taken a step which became 
so memorable that we still proverbially speak of any great deci- 
sion as a " crossing of the Rubicon." 

The swiftness of Caesar's lightning blows was always one 961. C^sar 
of the greatest reasons for his success. Before the Senate's maneuvere^' 
message had been an hour in his hands, Caesar's legions had ^r^JJ^f^ °"j 
been on the march from the Po valley toward Rome (49 B.C.). is elected 
Totally unprepared for so swift a response on Caesar's part, the (49 b.c.) 
Senate turned to Pompey, who informed them that the forces 
at his command could not hold Rome against Caesar. Indeed, 
there was at the moment no army in the Empire capable of 
meeting Caesar's veteran legions with any hope of victory. 
Pompey retreated, and as Caesar approached Rome, the majority 
of the senators and a large number of nobles fled with Pompey 
and his army. By skillful maneuvers Caesar forced Pompey and 
his followers to forsake Italy and cross over to Greece. Caesar's 
possession of Rome made it possible for him to be elected 
consul, and then to assume the role of lawful defender of 
Rome against the Senate and the army of Pompey. 

His position, however, was not yet secure. Pompey, in the 
eyes of the Orient, was the greatest man in Rome. He could 
muster all the peoples and kingdoms of the East against Caesar. 
Furthermore, he now held the great fleet with which he had 



592 



Ancient Times 



962. Pom- 
pey's power. 
Caesar cap- 
tures Pom- 
pey's army 
in Spain 
(summer of 
49 B.C.) 



963. Csesar 
surprises the 
senatorial 
party by 
crossing 
to Greece 
(winter of 
49-48 B.C.) 



964. Battle 
of Pharsalus 
(48 B.C.) 



suppressed the pirates, and he was thus master of the sea. 
With all the East at his back, he was improving every moment 
to gather and discipline an army with which to crush Cassar. 
Furthermore, Pompey's officers still held Spain since his recov- 
ery of it from the followers of Marius. Csesar was therefore 
obliged to reckon with the followers of Pompey on both sides, 
East and West. He determined to deal with the West first. 
With his customary swiftness he was in Spain by June (49 B.C.). 
Here he met the army of Pompey's commanders with maneuvers 
of such surprising cleverness that in a few weeks he cut off 
their supplies, surrounded them and forced them to surrender 
without fighting a battle. 

Having heard of Caesar's departure into Spain, Pompey and 
his great group of senators and nobles had been preparing at 
their leisure to cross over and take possession of Italy. Before 
they could even begin the crossing, Caesar had returned from 
Spain victorious, and to their amazement, in spite of the fact 
that they controlled the sea, he embarked at Brundisium, 
evaded their warships, and landed his army on the coast of 
Epirus. Forced by lack of supplies to divide his army, a part 
of his troops suffered a dangerous reverse. In the end, how- 
ever, in spite of his inferior numbers, he accepted battle with 
Pompey at Pharsalus, in Thessaly (48 B.C.). 

Pompey's plan for the battle was skillfully made, but it was 
not clever enough to outwit the greatest commander of the age. 
It consisted in drawing up his line so that a small stream would 
protect his right wing, in order that he might throw all his cav- 
alry to the left wing. Probably twice as strong as Caesar's right 
wing which it faced, it was expected to cut its way victoriously 
through, and then, passing around Caesar's right -end, to attack 
his legions in the rear. As the two armies approached each 
other, Caesar perceived Pompey's plan of battle. He at once 
shifted six of his best cohorts, over three thousand men, to his 
right end, where they were screened by his cavalry from dis- 
covery by the enemy (plan, p. 593). The position of these six 



A CenUiry of Revolution 



593 



cohorts may be compared to that of an unobserved football 
player crouching on the right side lines to receive the ball. 
Caesar then ordered his cavalry, mostly Gauls and Germans, 
to retreat as Pompey's horsemen attacked them. As they re- 
treated, Pompey's unsuspecting cavalry followed and pushed 
forward into Caesar's cleverly devised trap. For when Caesar's 
six cohorts swiftly dropped in behind them, Pompey's horsemen 
were caught between the six cohorts behind and Caesar's cav- 
alry in front, and they were quickly cut to pieces. Caesar's 
cavalry then swept swiftly around the enemy's now undefended 





Pompey's 

Pompey 's Infantry Cavalry 


\ Hills 


/> 


y/////////M///////M/////^^^^ V////////////////A 


1 


s/ 


Caesar's 


/ Town 

Hills 


/ 


Caesar 's Infantry ^ « MCavalry 

ill ( 



Plan of the Battle of Pharsalus (§ 964) 



left end and attacked Pompey's legions in the rear. As Caesar 
threw in his reserves against the hostile center at the same 
moment, the whole senatorial army was driven off the field in 
flight. Its remnants surrendered the next morning. 

This battle represented the highest development of military 965. Caesar 
art, and it never passed beyond the masterful skill of the victor conquest of 
of Pharsalus. Pompey, crushed by the first defeat of his life, ^ane^n world 
escaped into Egypt, where he was basely murdered. Caesar, (48-45 b.c) 
following Pompey to Egypt, found ruling there the beautiful 
Cleopatra, the seventh of the name, and the last of the Ptole- 
mies. The charms of this remarkable queen and the political 



594 



Ancieiit Times 



966. Caesar's 
moderation 
and his own 
position 



967. Csesar's 
reorganization 
of the State 
and Empire 



advantages of her friendship met a ready response on the part 
of the great Roman. Here Caesar displayed probably the most 
serious weakness in his career, as he tarried in Alexandria, dally- 
ing with this beautiful and gifted woman for three-quarters of 
a year (from October, 48, to June, 47 B.C.). In a dangerous 
outbreak which found Caesar without sufficient troops, he was 
attacked by a mob and the great Alexandrian library (§ 750) 
was burned. We know little of the operations and battles by 
which Caesar overthrew his opponents in Asia Minor. It was 
from there that he sent his famous report to the Senate : " I 
came, I saw, I conquered " {ve7ii^ vidi, vici). He was equally 
triumphant in the African province behind Carthage, and finally 
also in Spain. These, the only obstacles to Caesar's complete 
control of the empire of the world, were all disposed of by 
March, 45 B.C., a little over four years after he had first taken 
possession of Italy with his army (map IV, p. 552). 

Caesar used his power with great moderation and humanity. 
From the first he had taken great pains to show that his 
methods were not those of the bloody Sulla. He gratified no 
personal revenge, and he preserved the life of the gifted Cicero 
(§ 952), in spite of his hostility. It is clear that he intended 
his own position to be that of a Hellenistic sovereign like Alex- 
ander the Great. Nevertheless, he was too wise a statesman to 
abolish at once the outward forms of the Republic. He pos- 
sessed all the real power, and the Republic was doomed, for 
there was no one in Rome to gainsay this mightiest of the 
Romans. He had himself made Dictator for life, and assumed 
also the powers of the other leading offices of the State. 

Caesar lived only five years (49-44 B.C.) after his first con- 
quest of Italy (49 B.C.). Of this period, as we have seen, four 
years were almost wholly occupied by campaigns. He was 
therefore left but little time for the colossal task of reshaping 
the Roman State and organizing the vast Roman Empire, the 
task in which the Roman Senate had so completely failed. Sulla 
had raised the membership of the Senate from three to six 



A Ce7iUiry of Revolutio7i 595 

hundred. Caesar did not abolish the ancient body, but he greatly 
increased its numbers, filled it with his own friends and adher- 
ents, and even installed former slaves and foreigners among its 
menibers. He thus destroyed the public respect for it, and it 
was entirely ready to do his bidding. The new Senate could 
not obstruct him and hence the whole projected administration 
of the provinces centered in him and was permanently responsi- 
ble to him. The election of the officials of the Republic went 
on as before, but he began far-reaching reforms of the corrupt 
Roman administration. In all this he was launching the Roman 
Empire. He was in fact its first emperor, and only his untimely 
death continued the death struggles of the Republic for fifteen 
years more. 

He sketched vast plans for the rebuilding of Rome, for 968. Caesar's 
magnificent public buildings, and for the alteration of the plan 3^^ improve- 
of the city, including even a change in the course of the Tiber. "^^"^^ 
He laid out great roads along the important lines of com- 
munication, and he planned to cut a sea canal through the 
Isthmus of Corinth (Fig. 163). He completely reformed the 
government of cities. He put an end to centuries of incon- 
venience with the Greco-Roman moon-calendar (§ 564) by in- 
troducing into Europe the practical Egyptian calendar (§ 61), 
which we are still using, though with inconvenient Roman 
alterations. The imperial sweep of his plans included far- 
reaching conquests into new lands, like the subjugation of 
the Germans. Had he carried out these plans, the language of 
the Germans to-day would be a descendant of Latin, like the 
speech of the French and the Spanish. 

The eighteenth of March, 44 B.C., was set as the date for 969. The 
Caesar's departure for the Orient on a great campaign against o?SsaV°" 
the Parthians east of the Euphrates. But there were still men (March 15 

^ ^ 44 B.C.) and 

in Rome who were not ready to submit to the rule of one man. its results 
On the fifteenth of March, three days before the date arranged 
for his departure, and only a year after he had quelled the last 
disturbance in Spain, these men struck down the greatest of 



596 



Ancient Times 



the Romans. If some of the murderers of this just and kindly 
statesman, who was for the first time giving the unhappy peoples 
of the Mediterranean world a government alike just, honest, and 
efficient, — if some of his murderers, like Brutus and Cassius 
(headpiece, p. 574), fancied themselves patriots overthrowing a 
tyrant, they little understood how vain were all such efforts 
to restore the ancient Republic. World dominion and its mili- 
tary power had forever demolished the Roman Republic, and 
the 'murder of Caesar again plunged Italy and the Empire into 
civil war. The death of Alexander the Great interrupted in 
mid-career the conquest of a world empire stretching from the 
frontiers of India to the Atlantic Ocean. The bloody deed 
of the Ides of March, 44 B.C., stopped a similar conquest 
by Julius Caesar — a conquest which would have subjected 
Orient and Occident to the rule of a single sovereign. A like 
opportunity never arose again, and Caesar's successor had 
no such aims. 

Section 86. The Triumph of Augustus and the 
End oe the Civil War 



970. Youth 
of Caesar's 
nephew, 
Octavian 
(Augustus) 



971. Early- 
career of 
Octavian 



Over in Illyria the terrible news from Rome found the mur- 
dered statesman's grand-nephew Octavian (Fig. 245), a youth 
of eighteen, quietly pursuing his studies. A letter from his 
mother, brought by a secret messenger, bade him flee far away 
eastward without delay, in order to escape all danger at the 
hands of his uncle's murderers. The youth's reply was to pro- 
ceed without a moment's hesitation to Rome. This statesman- 
like decision of character reveals the quality of the young man 
both as he then showed it and for years to follow. 

On his arrival in Italy Octavian learned that he had been 
legally adopted by Caesar and also made his sole heir. His 
bold claim to his legal rights was met with refusal by Mark 
Antony, Caesar's fellow consul and one of his closest friends 
and supporters (§ 951), who had taken possession of Caesar's 



A Century of RevoliLtion 



597 



fortune and as consul could not be easily forced. By such 
men Octavian was treated with patronizing indulgence at first 

a fact to which he owed his life. He was too young to be 

regarded as dangerous. But his young shoulders carried a 
very old head. He slowly gathered the threads of the tangled 
situation in his clever fingers, not forgetting the lessons of his 
adoptive father's career. The 
most obvious lesson was the 
necessity of military power. 
He therefore rallied a force 
of Caesar's veterans, and two 
legions of Antony's troops 
also came over to him. Then 
playing the game of politics, 
with military power at his 
back and none too scrupulous 
a conscience, he showed him- 
self a statesman no longer to 
be ignored. 

By skillful improvement of 
the situation at Rome, Oc- 
tavian forced his own election 
as consul when only twenty 
years of age (43 B.C.). He 
was then able to form an 
alliance composed of himself and the other two most powerful 
leaders, Antony, Caesar's old follower, and Lepidus. This 
second triumvirate (three-man-alliance) was officially recognized 
by vote of the people. To obtain the money for carr)'ing on 
their wars and establishing themselves, the three began at once 
a Sullan reign of terror, with confiscation of property and mur- 
der of their enemies. Among them the great orator Cicero, 
who had endeavored to preserve the old Republic, was slain 
by Antony's brutal soldiers. He was -the last of the orator- 
statesmen of Rome, as had been Demosthenes of Athens 




Fig. 

TUS, 



245. Portrait of Augus- 
Now IN THE Boston Mu- 
seum OF Fine Arts 



59^ Ancient Times 

(§721). But the Republic was still supported by the two lead- 
ing murderers of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. They were at 
the head of a powerful eastern army, like that of Pompey, 
and were encamped at Philippi in Macedonia. As soon as 
they could leave Rome, Octavian and Antony moved against 
Brutus and Cassius, and in a great battle at Philippi the 
last defenders of the Republic were completely defeated 
(42 B.C.). 

973. Octavian- The two victors then divided their domains : Octavian was 
ancTthe^Vest to return to Italy and endeavor to crush the enemies of the 
(42-35 B.C.) triumvirate in the West. Antony was to remain in the East 

and bring it again under full subjection to Rome. In the West 
a rebellious son of Pompey, who seized Sicily and held control 
of the sea with his fleet, was finally crushed by Octavian ; and 
soon after Lepidus, who had been given the province of Africa 
behind Carthage, was also overthrown. Within ten years after 
Caesar's assassination, and though only twenty-eight, Octavian 
had gained complete control of Italy and the West. 

974. Octavian Antony had meantime showed that he had no ability as a 
Antony^and scrious Statesman. His prestige was also greatly dimmed by 
gams the ^ disastrous campaign against the Parthians. Dazzled by the 

attractions of Cleopatra, he was now living in Alexandria and 
Antioch, where he ruled the East as far as the Euphrates like 
an oriental sovereign. With Cleopatra as his queen, he main- 
tained a court of sumptuous splendor like that of the Persian 
kings in the days of their empire. Cleopatra, who had once 
hoped to rule Rome as Caesar's queen, was now cherishing 
similar hopes as the favorite of Antony. The tales of all this 
made their way to Rome and did not help Antony's cause in 
the eyes of the Roman Senate. Octavian easily induced the 
Senate for this and other reasons to declare war on Cleopatra, 
and thus he was able to advance against Antony. As the 
legions of Caesar and Pompey, representing the East and the 
West, had once before faced each other on a battlefield in 
Greece (§ 964), so now Octavian and Antony, the leaders of 



A Ce7ittiry of RevoliUio7i 599 

the East and the West, met at Actium on the west coast of 
Greece. A naval battle was fought, with the land forces as 
spectators. Before the end of the battle the soldiers of Antony 
saw their leader and his oriental queen forsaking them in flight, 
as Cleopatra's gorgeous galley, followed by her splendid royal 
flotilla, swept out to sea carrying the cowardly Antony to Egypt. 
The outcome was a sweeping victory for the heir of Caesar. 

The next year Octavian landed in Egypt without resistance 975. Octavian 
worth mentioning and took possession of the ancient land. ^Ro^man^^'^' 
Antony, probably forsaken by Cleopatra, took his own life. F^vince 
The proud queen was unwilling to undergo the crushing humil- and ends a 
iation of gracing Octavian 's triumph at Rome, two of whose revolution 
rulers had yielded to the power of her beauty and her person- ^"^ T\\\- 
ality, and she too died by her own hand. She was the last of 3ob.c.) 
the Ptolemies (§ 716), the rulers of Egypt for nearly three 
hundred years, since Alexander the Great. Octavian there- 
fore made Egypt Roman territory (30 B.C.). To the West, 
which he already controlled, Octavian had now added also the 
East. The lands under his control girdled the Mediterranean, 
and the entire Mediterranean world was under the power of a 
single ruler. Thus at last the unity of the Roman dominions 
was restored and an entire century of revolution and civil war, 
which had begun in the days of the Gracchi (133 i:. c), was 
ended (30 B.C.). 

Octavian's success marked the final triumph of one-man 976. The 
power in the entire ancient world, as it had long ago triumphed two^centuries 
in the Orient. The century of strife which Octavian's victory o^P^^^^ 
ended, was now followed by two centuries of profound peace, 
broken by only one serious interruption. These were the first 
two centuries of the Roman Empire, beginning in 30 b.c.^ We 
shall now take up the two centuries of peace in the two following 
chapters. 

1 It should be noticed that these two centuries of peace did not begin with 
the Christian Era. They began thirty years before the lirst year of the Christian 
Era, and hence the two centuries of peace do not correspond exactly with the 
first two centuries of our Christian Era, 



6oO Ancient Times 



QUESTIONS 

Section 83. What problems beset the Roman State in Italy? 
outside of Italy ? What can you say of the ability and the legal right 
of the Senate to meet these problems ? Who began the struggle for 
farm lands on behalf of the people? How did the Licinian laws 
attempt to aid the people? What was the condition of the govern- 
ment lands? What did Tiberius Gracchus tell the people? Describe 
his efforts to aid the people, and the result. Recount the work of 
Gains Gracchus, and the result. 

Section 84. What was the chief reason for the failure of the 
Gracchus brothers? Toward what kind of power did their leader- 
ship tend ? How did the people gain control of the army in the war 
with Jugurtha? Recount the victories of Marius against Jugurtha 
and the Northern barbarians. Give an account of his new military 
measures, How did Marius succeed as a statesman ? What was now 
the feeling of the Italian allies toward Rome? What can you say of 
Drusus? What happened on the death of Drusus? What was the 
result of the war with the allies? Describe the rise of Sulla. How 
did he defeat the will of the people ? Was his action legal ? What 
happened in Rome after Sulla went to Asia Minor ? Recount Sulla's 
campaign against Mithradates. W^hat happened on Sulla's return to 
Italy? What was the policy of Sulla, and how did he put it through ? 

Section 85. How did the people succeed in throwing off the 
rule of the Senate ? What great command did they give to Pompey ? 
Recount his operations against the pirates and in the Orient. Tell 
about the rise of Julius Caesar. Recount the rise of Cicero and his 
defeat of Catiline. How did this prove a setback to Caesar? How 
did Caesar secure election as consul ? Recount his campaigns in 
Gaul. What was his view of the political situation of Rome ? What 
did the Senate do to thwart Caesar ? What was the result of Caesar's 
advance on Rome? Recount his operations in Spain, and his in- 
vasion of Epirus. Describe the battle of Pharsalus. Recount briefly 
the achievements of Caesar after his triumph. Tell the story of his 
death and its results. 

Section 86. Tell the story of Octavian until the batde of Philippi. 
How did Octavian gain the West? Who was ruler of the East? 
How did Octavian gain the East? What great world did he then 
control ? What kind of power had triumphed at the end of a century 
of revolution ? What was to follow ? 







PART V. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
CHAPTER XXVII 

THE FIRST OF TWO CENTURIES OF PEACE: THE AGE OF 
AUGUSTUS AND THE SUCCESSORS OF HIS LINE 

Section 87. The Rule of Augustus and the Begin- 
ning OF Two Centuries of Peace (30 B.C.-14 a.d.) 

When Octavian returned to Italy he was received with the 977. Octa- 
greatest enthusiasm. A veritable hymn of thanksgiving arose ^te policy 
among all classes at the termination of a century of revolution, 
civil war, and devastation. The great majority of Romans now 
felt that an individual ruler was necessary for the control of 
the vast Roman dominions. Octavian therefore entered upon 
forty-four years of peaceful and devoted effort to give to the 

Note. The above headpiece shows a restoration of a magnificent marble in- 
closurfe containing the " Altar of Augustan Peace," erected by order of the Sen- 
ate in honor of Augustus. The inclosure was open to the sky, and its surrounding 
walls, of which portions still exist, are covered below by a broad band of orna- 
mental plant spirals, very sumptuous in effect. Above it is a series of reliefs, of 
which the one on the right of the door pictures the legendary hero ^^.neas bring- 
ing an offering to the temple of the Roman household gods (^P^nates) whom 
he carried from Troy to Latium (footnote, p. 484). 

601 



6o2 Ancient Times 

Roman P^mpire the organization and government which it had 
so long lacked. His most difficult task was to alter the old form 
of government so as to make a legal place for the power he 
had taken by military force. Unlike Caesar, Octavian felt a sin- 
cere respect for the institutions of the Roman Republic and 
did not wish to destroy them nor to gain for himself the throne 
of an oriental sovereign. During his struggle for the mastery 
heretofore, he had preserved the forms of the Republic and had 
been duly elected to his grea position. 

978. Organi- Accordingly, on returning to Rome, Octavian did not disturb 
Roman State the Senate, but did much to strengthen it and improve its 
by Octavian membership. Indeed, he voluntarily handed over his powers 

to the Senate and the Roman people in January, 27 B.C. The 
Senate thereupon, realizing by past experience its own helpless- 
ness, and knowing that it did not possess the organization for 
ruling the great Roman world successfully, gave him officially 
the command of the army and the control of the most important 
frontier provinces. Besides these vast powers, he held also the 
important rights of a tribune (§§ 797, 810), and on this last 
office he chiefly based his legal claim to his power in the State. 

979. Titles of At the same time the Senate conferred upon him the title of 
^" ^ "Augustus," that is, "the august." The chief name of his 

office was " Princeps," that is, " the first," meaning the first of 
the citizens. Another title given the head of the Roman Empire 
was an old word for director or commander ; namely, " Impera- 
tor," from which our word " emperor " is derived. Augustus, 
as we may now call him, regarded his position as that of an 
official of the Roman Republic, appointed by the Senate. 
Indeed, his appointment was not permanent, but for a term of 
years, after which he was reappointed. 

980. Dual The Roman Empire, which here emerges, was thus under a 
therTew^State- ^^^^ government of the Senate and of the Princeps, whom we 

^^^"/"gpo^^'" commonlv call the emperor. The clever Aus^ustus had done 
of the Senate ■' ^ ^ 

what his great foster father, Julius Caesar, had thought unneces- 
sary : he had conciliated those Romans who still cherished the 



TJie First of Two Centuries of Peaee 603 

old Republic. The new arrangement was officially a restoration 
of the Republic. But this dual state in which Augustus endeav- 
ored to preserve the old Republic was not well balanced. The 
Princeps held too much power to remain a mere appointive 
official. His powers were more than once increased by the 
Senate during the life of Augustus ; not on his demand, for he 
always showed the Senate the most ceremonious respect, but 
because the Senate could not dispense with his assistance. At 
the same time the old powers of the Senate could not be main- 
tained reign after reign, when the Senate controlled no army. 

The Princeps was the real ruler, because the legions were 981. Tend- 
behind him, and the so-called republican State created by mUrtaiT^^'^ 
Augustus tended to become a military monarchy, as we shall monarchy; 
see. All the influences from the Orient were in the same direc- fluences in 

-.^ . 11 1 T 1 r^, 1 this direction 

tion. l.gypt was m no way controlled by the Senate, but re- 
,nained a private domain of the emperor. In this the oldest 
State on the Mediterranean the emperor was king, in the ori- 
ental sense. He collected its huge revenues and ruled there as 
the Pharaohs and Ptolemies had done (§ 717). His position 
as absolute monarch in Egypt influenced his position as emperor 
and his methods of government everywhere. Indeed, the East 
as a whole could only understand the position of Augustus as 
that of a king, and this title they at once applied to him. This 
also had its influence in Rome. 

'i'he Empire which Rome now ruled consisted of the entire 982. Peace 
Mediterranean world, or a fringe of states extending entirely Augustus, 
around the Mediterranean and including all its shores (map I, f^jjj^j^^g 
p. 636). But the frontier boundaries, left almost entirely unsettled 
by the Republic, were a pressing question. There was a natural 
boundary in the south, the Sahara, and also in the west, the 
Atlantic ; but on the north and east further conquests might be 
made. In the main Augustus adopted the policy of organ- 
izing and consolidating the Empire as he found it, without 
making further conquests. In the east his boundary thus be- 
came the Euphrates, and in the north the Danube and the 



6o4 Ancient Times 

Rhine. The angle made by the Rhine and the Danube was 
not favorable for defense of the border, and late in his reign 
Augustus seems to have made an effort to push forward to the 
Elbe (see map I, p. 636). This would have given the Empire 
a more nearly straight boundary, extending from the Black Sea 
to Denmark in a line from the southeast to the northwest. 
But whatever the intentions of Augustus may have been, the 
Roman army was terribly defeated by the barbarous German 
tribes, and the effort was abandoned. The northern boundary 
of the Empire was then made a line of provinces west of the 
Rhine and south of the Danube, extending from the North 
Sea to the Black Sea.^ 

983. The For the defense of these vast frontiers it was necessary to 
^""^ maintain a large standing army. Nevertheless the army, now 

carefully reorganized by Augustus, was not as large as the 
armies which had grown up in the civil wars. Augustus first 
reduced it to eighteen legions, but later raised it to twenty-five. 
It probably contained, on the average, about two hundred and 
twenty-five thousand men. The army was now recruited chiefly 
from the provinces, and the foreign soldier who entered the 
ranks received citizenship in return for his service. Thus the 
fiction that the army was made up of citizens was maintained. 
But the tramp of the legions was heard no more in Italy. Hence- 
forth they were posted far out on the frontiers, and the citizens 
at home saw nothing of the troops who defended them. 

984. The suf- At the accession of Augustus the Roman Empire from Rome 
the provinces outward to the very frontiers of the provinces was sadly in 

need of restoration and opportunity to recuperate. The cost of 
the civil wars had been borne by the provinces. The eastern 
dominions, especially Greece, where the most important fighting 
of the long civil war had occurred, had suffered severely. For 
a century and a half before the great battles of the civil war, 
the provinces had been oppressed, excessively overtaxed or 

1 Recent study of this question is leading some historians also to the view 
that Augustus never really intended or attempted to conquer to the Elbe. 



The First of Two C en U tries of Peace 605 

tacitly plundered (§ 888). Barbarian invaders had seized the 
undefended cities of Greece and even established robber states 
for plundering purposes. Greece herself never recovered from 
the wounds then suffered, and, in general, the eastern Mediter- 
ranean had been greatly demoralized. The civilized world was 
longing for peace. 

Augustus therefore now undertook to do for the Mediter- 985. The 
ranean world what five hundred years earlier Darius had done Augus*m^:*^^ 
for the Persian Empire (§ 267), when it was even larger than the organi- 

^ ^ ' ^ ° zation of the 

the Roman Empire. But the task of Augustus demanded the provinces 
organization of a much more highly civilized world than that of 
the Persian Empire, including a vast network of commerce in 
the Mediterranean such as no earlier age had ever seen. Great 
peoples and nations had to be officially taken into the Empire 
and given honest and efficient government. Some of them had 
old and successful systems of government ; others had no gov- 
ernment at all. Egypt, for example, had long before possessed 
the most highly organized administration in the ancient world, 
but regions of the West, like Gaul, had not yet been given a 
system of government. All this Augustus endeavored to do. 

Under the Republic the governor of a province not only 986. The 
served for a short term but was also without experience. His sySem of 

unlimited power, like that of an absolute monarch, made it im- governors of 
^ ' ' the provinces 

possible for the consuls changing every year at home to control 

him. The governor of a province was now appointed by the 
permanent ruler at Rome, and such a governor knew that he 
was responsible to that ruler for wise and honest government 
of his province. He also knew that if he proved successful he 
could hold his post for years, or be promoted to a better one. 
There thus grew up under the permanent control of Augustus 
and his successors a body of provincial governors of experience 
and efficiency. The small group of less important provinces 
still under the control of the Senate, although they continued to 
suffer to some extent under the old system, also felt the influ- 
ence of the improved methods. 



6o6 



Ancient Times 



987. Augus- 
tus for the 
first time 
regulates the 
finances of 
the Empire 



988. Bene- 
ficial effect 
of the new 
efficient 
government 



989. The 

Mediterra- 
nean world 
on the way 
to become a 
Mediterra- 
nean nation 



In the days of the Republic no one had ever tried to settle 
how much money was needed to carry on the government, and 
how much of this sum each province ought justly to pay in the 
form of taxes. Augustus proceeded to put together huge census 
lists and property assessments, by which to determine the popu- 
lation and the total value of the property in each province. 
When this great piece of work was done he could determine 
just how much taxes each province should justly pay. He de- 
creed that the inhabitants of the provinces were to pay two 
kinds of direct taxes, one on land and one on personal prop- 
erty, besides customs duties and various internal revenue taxes. 
Augustus had complete control of the vast sums which he thus 
received in taxes, and his use of them was wise and just. Much 
of this money went back to the provinces to pay for necessary 
public works, like roads, bridges, aqueducts, and public build- 
ings. In making all these financial arrangements Augustus 
learned much from Egypt. 

Thus at last two centuries of Roman mismanagement of the 
provinces ended, and the obligation of Rome to give good 
government to her dependencies was finally fulfilled. The 
establishment of just, stable, and efficient control by the gov- 
ernment at once produced a profound change, visible in many 
ways as we shall see (§§ 991-1004), but especially in business. 
Men of capital no longer kept their money timidly out of sight, 
but put it at once into business ventures. The rate of interest 
under the last years of the Republic had been twelve per cent. 
But as money now became more plentiful, the interest rate 
quickly sank to four per cent. 

The great Mediterranean world under the control of Rome 
now entered upon a new age of prosperity and development, 
unknown before, when the nations along its shores were still 
fighting each other in war after war. A process of unification 
began which was to make the Mediterranean world a Mediter- 
ranean nation. The national threads of our historical narrative 
have heretofore been numerous, as we have followed the stories 



TJie First of Tzvo Centuries of Peace 607 

of the oriental nations, of Athens, Sparta, Macedonia, Rome, 
Carthage, and others. For a long time we have followed these 
narratives separately like individual strands ; but now they are 
to be twisted together into a single thread of national history, 
that of the Roman Empire. The great exceptions are the Ger- 
man barbarians in the north, and the unconquered Orient east 
of the Euphrates. 



Section 88. The Civilization of the Augustan Age 



In the new Mediterranean nation thus growing up, it was 990. Augus- 
the purpose of Augustus that Italy should occupy a superior 
position, as the imperial leader of all the peoples around the 



a restoration 
of old Roman 
life, and plans 

Mediterranean. Italy was not to sink to the level of these preeminence 
peoples nor to be merely one of them. We have seen the 
sturdy virtues of earlier Roman character undermined and 
corrupted by sudden wealth and power (§§ 906-922), before 
Italy had had a chance to become a nation. Augustus made a 
remarkable effort to undo all this damage and restore the fine 
old days of rustic Roman virtue, the good old Roman customs, 
the beliefs of the fathers. To meet increasing divorce, laws to 
protect the sanctity of marriage were passed. The oriental gods, 
so common for centuries in Greece (§ 657), and long wide- 
spread in Italy, were to be banished. The people were urged 
to awaken their declining interest in the religion of their fathers, 
and the old religious feasts were celebrated with increased splen- 
dor and impressiveness. At the same time the State temples, 
which had frequently fallen into decay, were repaired ; new 
ones were built, especially in Rome, and the services and usages 
of Roman State religion were everywhere revived. 

Tendencies like those which had changed the Roman people 991. The 
lie too deep in the life and the nature of men to be much "^^ °™^ 
altered by the power of a government or the pressure of new 
laws. It was a new world in which the Romans of the Augustan 
Age were living. The pnore Augustus applied his own power 



6o8 



Ancient Times 



992. Rome 
the greatest 
center of art 
the Palatine 
buildings of 
Augustus 



to modify the situation, the more noticeable became the con- 
trast between the Augustan Age and the old days before 
one-man power arose. Under Augustus, Rome for the first 
time received organized police, a fire department, a water 
department, and a fully organized office for the government 
sale of grain. Augustus himself boasted that he found Rome 
a city of brick and left it a city of marble. To the visitor at 
Rome, therefore, the new age proclaimed itself in imposing new 
buildings. For republican Rome had lacked the magnificent 
monumental theaters and gymnasia, libraries and music halls, 
which had long adorned the greater Hellenistic cities. It had 
also, of course, possessed no royal palace, like that at Alexandria. 
Architecturally, Alexandria was still the most splendid city of 
the ancient world. 

The great architectural works which Augustus now began, 
made Rome the leading art center of the ancient world. His 
building plans were in the main those which his adoptive 
father, the Great Dictator, had himself either laid out or al- 
ready begun. On the Palatine Hill, Augustus united several 
dwelling houses, already there, into a palace for his residence. 
It was very simple, and the quiet taste of his sleeping room, 
which long survived the rest of the building (§ 1014), was the 



* The Sacred Way (plan, p. 622) passed the little circular temple of 
Vesta (^), and reached the Forum at the Arch of Augustus {B), and 
the Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar (C). On the right was the old 
Basilica of ^milius {D) (§ 890), and on the left the magnificent new 
Basilica of Julius Caesar {E) (§ 993). Opposite this, across the old 
Forum market place {F), was the new Senate House {G) planned by 
Julius Caesar (§ 993). At the upper end of the Forum was the new 
speaker's platform {H); near it Septimius Severus later erected his 
crude arch (/). Beyond rises the Capitol, with the Temple of Saturn 
{/) and the Temple of Concord {K) at its base ; above on its slope is 
the Tabularium (Z), a place of public records; and on the summit of 
the Capitol the Temple of Jove {M). Julius Caesar extended the Forum 
northward by laying out his new Forum {N) behind his Senate House 
(6"). The subsequent growth of the emperors' Forums on this side may 
be seen in the next figure (Fig. 247), where the same lettering is repeated 
and continued 



^i 



y,^\^M 




# 



."^ 



■m' 



' t 







Q 



Fig. 246. The Roman Forum and its Public Buildings in the 
Early Empire. (After Luckenbach)* 

We look across the ancient market place (/% § 784) to the Tiber with its 
ships at the head of navigation. On each side of the market place, where 
we see the buildings {E, J, and D, G, /), were once rows of little wooden 
booths for selling meat, fish, and other merchandise. Especially after the 
beginning of the Carthaginian wars, these were displaced by fine buildings, 
like the basilica hall D, built not long after 200 B.C. Note the square 
ground plans (/, I\I) and the arches showing Etruscan influence, the Attic 
roofs and colonnades and the clerestory windows (Z), E) copied from the 
Hellenistic cities. See complete key on opposite page, footnote 




Fig. 247. The Forums of the Emperors continuing the View 
OF the Old Forum in Fig. 246. After L. Levy (Luckenbach)* 

The plan (p. 622) shows how the Forums of the emperors formed a 
connecting Hnk uniting the old Roman Forum (F) with the magnificent 
new buildings of the Campus Martins, like the Theater of Pompey, 
Baths of Agrippa, Pantheon, etc. In order to make this connection, 
Trajan cut away the ridge joining the Capitol Hill and the Quirinal Hill 
to a depth of 100 feet. The summit of his column (7^ above and Fig. 263) 
still marks the former height of the ridge. Little now remains of all 
this magnificence ; see the ruined colonnades around the column of 
Trajan (Fig. 263). See discussion of buildings on opposite page, footnote 



The First of Tzvo Centuries of Peace 609 

admiration of later Romans. From this royal dwelling on the 
Palatifie arose our English word " palace." A new and sumptu- 
ous temple of Apollo surrounded by colonnades, in which the 
emperor installed a large library (§ looi), was erected within 
easy reach of his palace doors. 

The palace looked down upon an imposing array of new 993. The 
marble buildings surrounding the ancient Forum. Nearest the Tn the^Forum 
palace the magnificent basilica business hall erected by Caesar, ^"'^ vicinity 
left unfinished and then damaged by fire, was now restored and 
completed by Augustus (Fig. 246, E). He also erected a new 
Senate building, planned but never built by Caesar, opposite the 
new basilica (Fig. 246, G). Facing the end of the Forum the em- 
peror now built a temple for the worship of his deified foster 
father, known as the temple of the Divine Julius (Fig. 246, C), 
and facing it, at the opposite end of the Forum, Augustus 
placed a magnificent speaker's platform of marble (Fig. 246, H). 
Behind the ground intended by him for the new Senate 
building, Cassar had built a new forum, called the Forum 
of Caesar (Figs. 246 and 247, iV); but the growing business of 
the city led Augustus to build a third forum, known as 
the Forum of Augustus (Fig. 247, O)^ which he placed next 
to that of Caesar. 

* The Senate House of Julius Caesar {G) and his new Forum {N) 
extended from the old Forum northward, occupying the ground where 
once the Assembly of the Roman People had been accustomed to meet 
[Comitium). This northern addition to the old Forum was still further 
extended in the same direction by the Forum of Augustus (6>) (§ 993). 
The great emperors of the first and second centuries then extended 
this northern addition in two directions, first on the southeast [P, 0, 
and then on the northwest [R, S, T, U, V, W, and plan, p. 622). In the 
first century Vespasian built the beautiful Forum of Peace [P), and the 
aged Nerva inserted his long, narrow Forum { Q) ; while in the second 
century a. d. Trajan, going to the other side of the Forum of Augustus 
((9), built the most magnificent of all the forums {R), with a vast basil- 
ica [S, called Basilica Ulpia) beside it, and beyond it his two libraries 
(^. ^) (§ 105 0> with his wonderful column {T, and Fig. 263) between 
them. In Trajan's honor Hadrian then built a temple {JV), completing 
this line of the most magnificent buildings the ancient world ever saw. 



6io 



Ancient Times 



994. First 
theaters and 
baths; Altar 
of Peace 



995. Influ- 
ence of 
Greece and 
the Orient 
on Roman 
architecture 



996. Com- 
plete lack 
of initiative 
in sculpture 
and painting 
at Rome 



The first stone theater in Rome had been built by Pompey 
about twenty-five years before the accession of Augustus (plan, 
p. 622). The emperor, therefore, erected a large and magnifi- 
cent theater, which he named the Theater of Marcellus (§ 1007), 
after his deceased son-in-law Marcellus. At the same time 
Agrippa, the ablest of the generals and ministers of Augustus, 
erected the first fine public baths in Rome, for which he was 
given space in the Field of Mars, an old drill ground (plan, 
p. 622). In connection with it were other splendid public build- 
ings added by Agrippa, and a spacious open square for the 
Assembly of the People. At the same time the Senate showed 
its appreciation of the new era of peace by erecting a large 
and beautiful marble Altar of Peace (headpiece, p. 601). 

In this new architecture of Rome, Greek models were 
the controlling influence. Nevertheless, oriental influences also 
were very prominent. Greek architecture did not employ the 
arch so long used in the Orient, but the architects of Rome 
now gave it a place of prominence along with the colonnade, 
as the two leading features of their buildings. It was through 
these Roman buildings that the arch gained its important place 
in our own modern architecture. Augustus seems to have been 
much interested in the monuments of the ancient oriental world, 
which he more than once visited. His triumphal arch was ar- 
ranged with three gates like the Assyrian palace front (Fig. 248). 
He carried away from the Nile a number of Egyptian obelisks 
and set them up in Rome, and in building his own family tomb 
he selected a design from the Orient. One of the noble families 
of Rome even built a pyramid as a tomb, and it still stands on 
the outskirts of the city (Fig. 249). 

While architecture flourished in Rome, sculpture was less 
cultivated. Beautiful sculpture, following old models, might still 
be produced ; but there were no creative sculptors in Rome like 
those whom we have met in Athens. Painting as an independ- 
ent art had ceased to be practiced. There was not a single 
great painter in Rome, and the painting which was practiced 



(U j_, r^ "Z! "^^ ^ 
^ .ti 05 (U 




Ri C <" '^ 

m u *^ '^ x^ 

^2^ "J fit 



6ii 



6l2 



Ancient Times 



997. Lack 
of science 
at Rome; 
Agrippa's 
map 



was merely that of wall decoration, as we see it in the houses 
of Pompeii (Fig. 197), which we are yet to visit. 

If Rome was a borrower in art, she was even more so in 
science. Rome had no such men as Archimedes (§ 742) and 
Eratosthenes (§ 745). When Agrippa, Augustus's powerful 




Fig. 249. Pyramid-Tomb of a Roman Noble named Cestius 

Wealthy Romans familiar with the East {§ 1046) might erect a tomb of 
oriental form, as the family of this noble Cestius did. His pyramid- 
tomb when built (in the reign of Augustus) stood outside of the city; 
but nearly three hundred years later it was included in the wall erected 
around the city by Aurelian (270-275 a. D.) for the protection of 
Rome against the barbarian invasions (§ 1096). Here we see a portion 
of the wall of Aurelian on each side of the pyramid 



minister, drew up a great map of the world, all he had in view 
was the practical use of the map by Roman governors going 
out to their provinces or by merchants traveling with goods. 
Hence the roads were elaborately laid out, not on a fixed scale 
but so that there would be space enough along each road for 
the names of all the towns situated along it, and for all the 



The First of Two Centuries of Peace 613 

distances in miles between towns, which were inserted in figures 
on the map. Such a map was without doubt convenient, but 
it entirely lacked the network of latitude and longitude so 
carefully worked out by Eratosthenes (§ 748), and for this 
reason the shapes of the countries and seas were so distorted 
that none of the readers of this book would be able to find 
anything or recognize familiar countries. 

The leading geography of the time was written by a Greek 998. Strabo 
living in Rome, named Strabo. It was a delightful narrative phyfdecfine 
of wide travels mingled with history, and although it sadly °^ science 
lacked in scientific method, it was for many centuries the 
world's standard geography and may still be read with great 
pleasure and profit as an ancient book of travel. The work 
of Strabo, however, is a landmark disclosing the decline of 
ancient science and the end of that great line of scientists 
whose achievements made the Hellenistic Age the greatest 
age of science in the early world. 

Indifference to science at Rome was in marked contrast 999. Enthusi- 

with Roman interest in literature. The greatest of the leading fn^TteraSre- 

Romans displayed in some cases an almost pathetic devotion Romans of 

^ ■' ^ Greco Roman 

to literary studies, even while weighed down with the heaviest culture the 

.,.,..„ , . T • 1 leading culti- 

responsibilities. Caesar put togetner a treatise on Latm speech vatedmenof 

while crossing the Alps in a palanquin, when his mind must Jvorld"^'^'^^ 

have been filled with the problems of his great wars in Gaul. 

He dedicated the essay to Cicero, the greatest master of Latin 

prose. Such men as these had studied in Athens or Rhodes, 

and were deeply versed in the finest works of Greek learning 

and literature. Caesar and Cicero and the men of their class 

spoke Greek every day among themselves, perhaps more than 

they did Latin. In these men Hellenistic civilization and Roman 

character had mingled to produce the most cultivated minds 

of the ancient world. Among the educated men in the declining 

Greek communities of the East, none could rival these finest 

of the Romans in cultivation or in power of mind. Indeed, 

Greece never produced men of just this type, who exhibited 



6i4 



Ancient Times 



1000. Cicero 
the type of 
the highly 
educated man 
of the late 
Republic ; 
his writings 
and their 
enduring 
influence 



lOOl. Augus- 
tan Age and 
literature : 
Livy 



such a combination of gifts — the highest ability both in public 
leadership and in literary achievement. 

Of literary studies Cicero said : " Such studies profit youth 
and rejoice old age ; while they increase happiness in good 
fortune, they are in affliction a consolation and a refuge ; they 
give us joy at home and they do not hamper us abroad ; they 
tarry with us at night time and they go forth with us to 
the countryside." Thus spoke the most cultivated man Rome 
ever produced, and the ideals of the educated man which he 
himself personified have never ceased to exert a powerful in- 
fluence upon educated men in all lands. When he failed as a 
statesman, a career for which he did not possess the necessary 
firmness and practical insight (§957), he devoted himself to 
his literary pursuits. As the greatest orator in Roman history, 
he had already done much to perfect and beautify Latin prose 
in the orations which he delivered in the course of his career 
as a lawyer and a statesman. But after his retirement he pro- 
duced a group of remarkable essays on oratory, a series of 
treatises on conduct — such matters as friendship, old age, and 
the like ; and he left behind also several hundred letters which 
were preserved by his friends. As one of the last sacrifices of 
the civil wars, Cicero had fallen by the hands of Antony's brutal 
soldiery (§ 972) ; but his writings were to exert an undying influ- 
ence. They made Latin speech one of the most beautiful instru- 
ments of human expression, and as an example of the finest 
literary style they have influenced the best writing in all the 
languages of civilization ever since. 

Augustus and a number of the leading men about him had 
known Cicero. For them that commingling of Greek and 
Roman civilization, which might well be called Ciceronian, 
became the leading cultivated influence in their lives. The 
Ciceronian culture of the last days of the dying Republic thus 
became the ideal of the early Empire and the Augustan Age. 
Augustus had early established two libraries in Rome, and one 
of them contained the greatest collection of both Greek and 



The First of Tzvo Ceftturies of Peace 615 

Latin books in the ancient world. Men steeped in this Greco- 
Roman culture now began to feel the influence of the great 
events which had built up the vast Roman Empire. As at 
Athens in the days of the greatest Athenian power, so the 
vision of the greatness of the State stirred the imagination of 
thinking men. Livy wrote an enormous history of Rome from 
the earliest times, that is to say, from the Trojan War to the 
reign of Augustus, in one hundred and forty-two rolls (§ 751) 
— a work which cost him forty years of labor. While it was 
beautiful literature, and the fragments which survive still form 
fascinating reading, it was very inaccurate history. The careful 
historical method that had made Thucydides (§667) the greatest 
of ancient historians had disappeared. 

In the last days of the Republic, in spite of turbulence and 1002. Rise 
civil war, Cicero and the men of his time had perfected Latin the Augustan 
prose. On the other hand, the greatest of \.2i\jm. poetry arose ^^^' Horace 
under the inspiration of the early Empire and the universal 
peace established by Augustus. Horace, the leading poet of 
the time, had been a friend of the assassins of Caesar, and 
he had faced the future Augustus on the battlefield of Philippi. 
After a dangerous struggle he had saved himself and at last 
found security in the era of peace. Having lived through many 
dangers, to rejoice in the general peace, he gained the forgive- 
ness and friendship of Augustus. In his youth, although only 
the son of a freedman of unknown race, he had studied in 
Greece, and he knew the old Greek lyric poets (§ 482) who 
had suffered danger and disaster as he himself had done. With / 

the haunting echoes of old Greek poetry in his soul, he now / 

found his own voice. Then he began to write of the men and I 

the life of his own time in a body of verse which forms for 
us an undying picture of the Romans in the days of Augustus. 
The poems of Horace will always remain one of the greatest 
legacies from the ancient world — a treasury of Roman life as 
pictured by a ripe and cultivated mind, unsurpassed even in 
the highly developed literature of the Greeks. 



6i6 Ancient Times 

1003. Virgil Virgil, the other great poet of the Augustan Age, had from 
iEneid the beginning been a warm admirer of the great Caesar and 

the young Octavian. When the civil war had deprived Virgil 
of his ancestral farm under the shadow of the Alps in the 
North, it was restored to him by Augustus. Here, as he looked 
out upon his own fields, the poet began to v/rite verses like 
those of Theocritus (§ 754), reflecting to us in all its poetic 
beauty the rustic life of his time on the green hillsides of Italy. 
But these imitations of Greek models would never have given 
Virgil his place as one of the greatest poets of the world. As 
time passed he gained an exalted vision of the mission of Rome, 
and especially of Augustus, as the restorer of world peace. 
More than one Latin epic was already in circulation (§ 904), 
but in order to give voice to his vision, Virgil now undertook 
the creation of another epic, in which he pictured the wander- 
ings of the Trojan hero ^^neas from Asia Minor to Italy, where 
in the course of many heroic adventures he founded the royal 
line of Latium (headpiece, p. 484). From him, according to 
the story, were descended the Julian family, the Caesars, whose 
latest leader Augustus had saved Rome and established a 
world peace. 

1004. Char- Unlike the Homeric epics, Virgil's ^Eneid, as it is called, 
^neid was not the outgrowth of an heroic age. It was a tribute to 

Augustus, whom the poem artistically placed against a glorious 
background of heroic achievement in the Trojan Age, just as 
Alexander the Great contrived to do the same for himself 
(§ 689). The ^neid was therefore the product of a self- 
conscious, literary age — the highly finished work of a literary 
artist who now took his place with Horace as one of the great 
interpreters of his age. Hardly so penetrating a mind as his 
friend Horace, Virgil was perhaps an even greater master of 
Latin verse. Deeply admired by the age that produced it, the 
yf^neid has ever since been one of the leading schoolbooks of 
the civilized world, and has had an abiding influence on the best 
literature of later times. 



The First of Two CeiiUiries of Peace 617 

Augustus himself also left an account of his deeds. When 1005. Ac- 
he was over seventy-five years old, as he felt his end approach- deedlkftby 

ing, he put together a narrative of his career, which was en- Augustus in 

the Ancyra 
graved on bronze tablets and set up before his tomb. In the monument 

simple dignity of this impressive story we see the career of 
Augustus unfolding before us in one grand achievement after 
another, rising like a panorama of successive mountain peaks, 
in a vision of such grandeur as to make the document prob- 
ably the most impressive brief record of a great man's life which 
has survived to us from the ancient world. Almost with his 
last breath Augustus penned the closing lines of this remark- 
able document, and on the nineteenth of August, the month 
which bears his name, in the year 14 a.d., the first of the 
Roman emperors died. 

Section 89. The Line of Augustus and the End of 
THE First Century of Peace (14 A.D.-68 a.d.) 

Augustus had been in supreme control of the great Roman 1006. The 
world for forty-four years ; that is, nearly half a century. Four s^rs of ^h?" 
descendants of his family, either by blood or adoption, were to JP* °^ 
rule for more than another half centuiy, and thus to fill out the (14-68 a.d.) 
first century of peace. The prejudice against one-man power 
was still so strong that the writers of this age and their suc- 
cessors have transmitted to us very unfair accounts of these 
four rulers. Two of them were indeed deserving of the con- 
tempt in which they are still held; but the other two were 
in many respects able rulers, who did much to improve the 
developing government of the Empire. 

Augustus had never put forward a law providing for the 1007. Ques- 
appointment of his successor or for later successors to his succession; 
position. Any prominent Roman citizen might have aspired 
to the oflfice. Augustus left no son, and one after another his 
male heirs had died, among them his grandsons, the sons of 
his daughter Julia. He had finally been obliged to ask the 



Tiberius 



6i8 Ancient Tunes 

Senate to associate with him his stepson Tiberius, his wife's 
son by an earlier marriage. Before the death of Augustus, 
>-- Tiberius had therefore been given joint command of the army 

i^- and also the tribune's power. The Senate, therefore, at once 

appointed him to all his stepfather's powers, and without any 
limit as to time. 

1008. The Tiberius was an able soldier and an experienced man of 
ofrSerfu?" affairs. He gave the provinces wise and efficient governors, 
(14-37 A. D.) ^j^(j showed himself a skilled and successful ruler. He did not, 

however, possess his stepfather's tact and respect for the old 
institutions. He found it very vexatious to carry on joint rule 
with a Senate whose power was in reality litde more than a 
fiction. He felt only contempt for the Roman nobles who 
publicly did him homage and secretly slandered him or plotted 
his downfall. He likewise despised the Roman populace. Under 
Augustus they had continued to go through the form of electing 
magistrates and passing laws as in the days of the Republic, but 
of course both the magistrates they elected and the laws they 
passed had been those proposed to the assemblies by Augustus. 
Tiberius, however, no longer allowed the Roman rabble to go 
through the farce of voting on what the emperor had already 
decided, and even the appearance of a government by the 
Roman people thus finally disappeared forever. To complete 
his unpopularity in Rome, Tiberius also practiced strict economy 
in government and much reduced the funds devoted to public 
shows for the amusement of the people. Universally hated in 
Rome, greatly afflicted also by bereavements and disappoint- 
ments in his private life, Tiberius left the city and spent his last 
years in a group of magnificent villas on the lofty island of 
Capri, overlooking the Bay of Naples, where he died a disap- 
pointed man (37 a. d.). 

1009. Calig- As Tiberius had lost his son, the choice for his successor fell 
upon Gaius Caesar, a great-grandson of Augustus, nicknamed 
Caligula ('' little boot ") by the soldiers among whom he was 
brought up. A young man of only twenty-five years, and at 



ula {^n-. 

A.D.) 



The First of Tzvo Centimes of Peace 619 

first very popular in Rome, Caligula was so transformed by his 
sense of vast power and by long-continued dissipation that his 
mind was crazed. He made his horse a consul, and the enor- 
mous wealth saved for the State by Tiberius he squandered in 
reckless debauchery and absurd building enterprises. In the 
midst of confiscation and murder, this mockery of a reign was 
brought to a sudden close by Caligula's own officers, who put 
an end to his life in his palace on the Palatine after he had 
reigned only four years. 

The imperial guards, ransacking the palace after the death loio. The 
of Caligula, found in hiding the trembling figure of a nephew ciaudTu" ^ 
of Tiberius and uncle of the dead Caligula, named Claudius, ^^i a.d.) 
He had always been merely tolerated by his family as a man 
both physically and mentally inferior. He was now fifty years 
old, and there is no doubt that he was weak-kneed both in 
body and in character. But the guards hailed him as emperor, 
and the Senate was obliged to consent. Claudius was a great 
improvement upon Caligula, although he was easily influenced 
by the women of his family and the freedmen officials whom 
he had around him. The palace therefore soon became a nest 
of plots and intrigues, in which slander, banishment, and poison 
played their evil parts. 

Nevertheless Claudius accomplished much for the Empire lon.Achieve- 
and devoted himself to its affairs. He conducted in person a Claudius: 
successful campaign in Britain, and for the first time made its ^j.^^^^^^ °ub- 
southern portion a province of the Empire. It was this con- He works; 

1-1111 1- irx- '\ • 1 creation of 

quest which helped to bnng so much 01 Latm speecn mto the ministers of 
English language, for Britain remained a Roman province for ^.d?) ^^"^"^ 
three and a half centuries. At Rome Claudius was greatly in- 
terested in buildings and practical improvements. He built two 
vast new aqueducts, together nearly a hundred miles in length, 
furnishing Rome with a plentiful supply of fresh water from 
the mountains (Fig. 250). At the same time his own officials, 
chiefly able Greek freedmen who were aiding him in his duties, 
were beginning to form a kind of cabinet destined finally to 



620 



Ancient Times 



X0I2. Prob- 
able assas- 
sination of 
Claudius and 
accession of 
Nero (54 
A.D.) 



give the Empire for the first time a group of efficient ministers, 
whom we would call the Secretary of the lYeasur}', the Secre- 
tary of State, and others like them. 

The inability of Claudius to select wisely and to control those 
who formed his circle was the probable cause of his death. It 




Fig. 250. The Aqueduct of the Emperor Claudius 

This wonderful aqueduct, built by the Emperor Claudius about the 
middle of the first century A. D., is over 40 miles long. About three 
fourths of it is subterranean, but the last 10 miles consists of tall arches 
of massive masonry, as seen here, supporting the channel in which the 
water flowed, till it reached the palace of the emperor on the Palatine 
(plan, p. 622). Such ancient Roman aqueducts were so well built that 
four of them are still in use at Rome, and they convey to the city a more 
plentiful supply of water than any great modern city elsewhere receives 



was also the reason why Agrippina, the last of his wives, was 
able to push aside the son of Claudius and gain the throne for 
her own son Nero, as the successor of Claudius. Not only on 
his mother's side, but also on his father's, Nero was descended 
from the family of Augustus. His mother had intrusted his 
education to the philosopher Seneca, and for the first five years 
of his reign, while Seneca was his chief minister, the rule of 



The Fi7'st of Two Centimes of Peace 621 

Nero was wise and successful. When palace plots and intrigues, 
in which Seneca was not without blame, had removed this able 
minister from the court and had also banished Nero's strong- 
minded mother, Agrippina, he cast aside all restraint and fol- 
lowed his own evil nature in a career of such vice and cruelty 
that the name of Nero has ever since been regarded as one of 
the blackest in all history. 

Nero was devoted to art and wished personally to practice it. 1013. The 
While the favorites of the palace carried on the government, he Ner^s reign 
toured the principal cities of Greece as a musical composer, 
competing for prizes in dancing, singing, and chariot races. As 
the companion of actors, sportsmen, and prize fighters, he even 
took part in gladiatorial exhibitions. Becoming more and more 
entangled in the meshes of court plots, his cowardly and sus- 
picious nature led him to condemn his old teacher, Seneca, to 
death, to cause the assassination of the son of Claudius and of 
many other innocent and deserving men. In the same way 
he was persuaded to take the life of his wife, and to crown his 
infamy even had his own mother assassinated. At the same 
time his wild extravagance, his excessive taxation in some of 
the provinces, and his murders among the rich and noble were 
stirring up dangerous dissatisfaction, which was to result in 
his fall. 

A great disaster, meantime, took place in Rome. A fire broke 1014. The 
out among the cheap wooden buildings around the circus (see Rome (I/^ 
plan, p. 622). It swept over the Palatine Hill, destroying the ^•^•^,'^"^, 
palace of Augustus, leaving only his sleeping room (§ 992), and 
then passed on through the city. It burned for a week, wiping 
out a large portion of the city, and then breaking out again, 
increased the damage. Dark rumors ran through the streets 
that Nero himself had set fire to the city that he might rebuild 
it more splendidly, and gossip told how he sat watching the 
conflagration while giving a musical performance of his own on 
the destruction of Troy. There is no evidence to support these 
rumors. Under the circumstances, Nero himself welcomed 



622 



Ancient Times 



another version, which accused the Christians of having started 
the fire, and he executed a large number of them with horrible 
tortures. At vast expense, to which much of his excessive taxa- 
tion was due, he undertook the rebuilding of the city, and he 
erected an enormous palace for himself called the " Golden 




'^f^JI SCALE OF YARPS 

'"'^ 6,. ,200 400 60O 800 1000 



Map of Rome under the Emperors 



House," extending across the ground where the Colosseum 
now stands, from the east end of the Forum eastward and 
northeastward across the Esquiline Hill and over a large section 
of the city. At the entrance was a colossal bronze statue of 
himself over a hundred feet high (Fig. 262). There can be no 
doubt that Nero's interest in art was sincere and that he really 
desired to make Rome a beautiful city. 



The First of Two Centuries of Peace 623 

The dissatisfaction at Rome and Nero's treatment of the 1015. The 



death of 
Nero, the 



only able men around him deprived him of support there. Then 

the provinces began to chafe under heavy taxation. When last of the 

IT -1 • n ^^ ^ -i JuHan Hnc ; 

the discontent m the provmces finally broke out in open the end of 
revolt, led especially by Galba, a Roman governor in Spain, L^^of pelce 
Nero showed no ability to meet the revolt. The rebellious ^^^ ^'^'^ 
troops marched on Rome. Nero went into hiding, and on hear- 
ing that the Senate had voted his death, he theatrically stabbed 
himself, and, attitudinizing to the last, he passed away uttering 
the words, "What an artist dies in me ! " Thus died in 68 a.d. 
the last ruler of the line of Augustus, and with him ended the 
first century of peace (31 B.C.-68 a.d.); for several Roman 
commanders now struggled for the throne and threatened to 
involve the Empire in another long civil war. 

In spite of the misrule which had attended the reigns of two 1016. Last- 
of the line of Augustus, the good accomplished in the reigns du^mg^fhe'^ 
of Tiberius and Claudius could not be wholly undone. Both at j^Han^ *^^ 



the emperors 



line ; 

Rome and in the provinces, the government had been much i^^^^f^i°" ^} 
improved. But, as we have seen, the Roman State was fast 
becoming a monarchy in which the crown was bequeathed 
from father to son. This process had been hastened by the 
fact that the Caesars, as the emperors were now called, had 
gained a position of unique reverence. Beginning with Julius 
Caesar, the emperors,^ like Alexander the Great, were deified, 
and their worship was widely practiced throughout the Empire. 
It was indeed an obligation of citizenship to pay divine homage 
to the emperor. The supreme place which he now occupied was 
not to be endangered by the brief struggles which followed the 
death of Nero, and the wide rule of the Roman emperor, even 
after the fall of Julius Caesar's line, was to maintain another cen- 
tury of prosperity and peace. To this second century of peace 
in the Roman Empire we must devote another chapter. 

1 Besides Julius Caesar and Augustus, Claudius was the only emperor of the 
Julian line who was deified. Tiberius failed of it because of his unpopularity, and 
Caligula and Nero, of course, because of their infamous characters. 



624 Ancient Times 

QUESTIONS 

Section %']. What kind of a period did the rule of Augustus 
begin? What was his attitude toward the Repubhc? What chief 
offices and powers did he receive? From what body? What were 
his tides? Had the Republic survived? What body was continuing 
the power of the Republic ? Was this power likely to survive ? Who 
was the real ruler ? W^hat influences tended to make him a sovereign ? 
What was the policy of Augustus on the frontiers ? What did he do 
with the army? How had the provinces, especially Greece, suffered? 
What did Augustus attempt to do about it ? How did Augustus im- 
prove the rule of the provinces ? Describe his financial improvements. 
What beneficial effects in business were observable ? W^as the Medi- 
terranean world about to become a nation ? 

Section 88. What kind of life did Augustus desire for Italy? 
What did he want the position of Italy to be? How had Rome be- 
come a new world ? What improvements did Augustus introduce in 
the city? on the Palatine? in the Forum? What other buildings 
were erected ? What architectural influences prevailed ? Were there 
any creative artists in sculpture and painting ? What can you say of 
science in Rome ? What work did Strabo produce ? Tell about the 
attitude of educated Romans toward literature. What was Cicero's 
feeling about literature, and what did he write ? What has been the 
influence of his writing? What was his influence in the Augustan 
Age? What was Rome's position in literature? What can you say 
of Livy? of Horace? of Virgil? Discuss the leading work of Virgil. 
What remarkable narrative did Augustus himself write ? 

Section 89. How long were Augustus and the four following 
rulers of his line in power ? Who succeeded Augustus ? Describe his 
rule. What became of the old power of the people under Tiberius ? 
Who succeeded Tiberius, and what can you say of his reign ? De- 
scribe the accession of Claudius. What did he accomplish? Who 
succeeded Claudius? How had Nero been educated? Describe his 
reign and character. What catastrophe overtook Rome? Describe 
his end and its causes. What period closed with his death? Give its 
date. What can you say of the results of the rule of the Julian line? 
What exalted station was given to the Roman emperors? What 
period followed the disappearance of the Julian line? 




CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE SECOND CENTURY OF PEACE AND THE CIVILIZATION 
OF THE EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE 

Section 90. The Emperors of the Second Century 
OF Peace (beginning 69 a.d.) 

For about a year after the death of Nero the struggle among 1017. Advent 
the leading military commanders for the throne of the Caesars century of 
threatened to involve the Empire in another long; civil war. peace with 

^ ° the triumph 

Fortunately the troops of Vespasian, a very able commander of Vespasian 
in the East, were so strong that he was easily victorious, and 
in 69 A.D, he was declared emperor by the Senate. With him, 



Note. The above headpiece shows us the body of a citizen of Pompeii who 
perished when the city was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a.d. 
(§ 1034). The fine volcanic ashes settled around the man's body, and these rain- 
soaked ashes made a cast of his figure before it had perished. After the body 
had perished it left in the hardened mass of ashes a hollow mold, which the 
modern excavators poured full of plaster, and thus secured a cast of the figure 
of the unfortunate man just as he lay smothered by the deadly ashes which 
overwhelmed him over eighteen hundred years ago. 

625 



626 



Aficient Times 



1018. Rebel- 
lion of the 
Jews and de- 
struction of 
Jerusalem 
(70A.D.) 



1019. Two 

great tasks 
of the em- 
perors : fron- 
tier defenses 
and efficient 
government 
organization 



1020. The 
Roman Em- 
pire, the 
bulwark of 
Mediterra- 
nean civiliza- 
tion against 
northern 
barbarism 



therefore, began a second century of peace under a line of 
able emperors who brought the Empire to the highest level of 
prosperity and happiness. We shall first sketch the political 
and military activities of these emperors and then turn to the 
life and civilization of the Empire as a v^hole during the second 
century of peace. 

Even though remote wars broke out on the frontiers or in 
distant provinces, they did not disturb the peace of the Empire 
as a whole. Before his election as emperor, Vespasian had been 
engaged in crushing a revolt of the fanatical Jews in Palestine, 
and the next year his able son Titus captured and destroyed 
Jerusalem amid frightful massacres which exterminated large 
numbers of the rebellious Jews (70 a.d.). It was later found 
necessary to forbid all Jews from entering their beloved city, 
consecrated by so many sacred memories ; and it was made a 
Roman colony under a different name. Judea at the same time 
became a Roman province. 

Two great tasks were accomplished by the emperors of the 
age we are discussing: first, that of perfecting the system of 
defenses on the frontiers, and second, that of more fully devel- 
oping the government and administration of the Empire. Let 
us look first at the frontiers. On the south the Empire was 
protected by the Sahara and on the west by the Atlantic ; but 
on the north and east it was open to attack. The shifting Ger- 
man tribes constantly threatened the northern frontiers; while 
in the east the frontier on the Euphrates was made chronically 
unsafe by the Parthians, the only civilized power still uncon- 
quered by Rome (see map I, p. d^^^- 

The pressure of the barbarians on the northern frontiers, 
which we recall in the time of Marius (§ 936), was the continu- 
ance of the vast movement with which we are already ac- 
quainted — the tide of migration which long before had swept 
the Indo-European peoples to the Mediterranean (see diagram, 
Fig. 112) and had carried the Greeks and the Romans into 
their two Mediterranean peninsulas. Mediterranean civilization 



The Second Century of Peace 627 

was thus in constant danger of being overwhelmed from the 
North, just as the splendid ^Egean civilization was once sub- 
merged by the incoming of the Greeks (Chap. IX). The 
great problem for future humanity was whether the Roman 
emperors would be able to hold off the barbarians long enough 
so that in course of time these rude Northerners might gain 
enough of Mediterranean civilization to respect it, and to pre- 
serve at least some of it for mankind in the future. 

The Flavian family, as we call Vespasian and his tAvo sons, 1021. The 
did much to make the northern frontiers safe. After the mild ^ng^of^tfTe" 
and kindly rule of Vespasian's son, Titus (§ 10 18), the latter's "orthem 
brother, Vespasian's second son Domitian, adopted the frontier the Flavian 
lines laid down by Augustus and planned their fortification (69-96 a. d.) 
with walls wherever necessary. He began the protection of the 
exposed border between the upper Rhine and the upper 
Danube. In Britain, Domitian even pushed the frontier further 
northward and then erected a line of defenses. But on the 
lower Danube he failed to meet the dangerous power of the 
growing kingdom of Dacia. He even sent gifts to the Dacian 
king, intended to keep him quiet and satisfied. By this unwise 
policy Domitian created a difficult problem in this region, to be 
solved by his successors (see map I, p. 636). 

The brief and quiet reign of the senator Nerva, who was 1022. Trajan 
selected by the Senate to succeed Domitian (96 a.d.), left the barbaSns^ 
whole dangerous situation on the lower Danube to be met by ^^ ^'^^ \ov)t.x 

° ■^ Danube and 

the brilliant soldier Trajan, who followed Nerva in 98 a.d. conquers 
He quickly discerned that there would be no safety for the 106 a.d.) 
Empire along the Danube frontier, except by crossing the river 
and crushing the Dacian kingdom. Bridging the Danube with 
boats and hewing his way through wild forests, Trajan led his 
army through obstacles never before overcome by Roman 
troops. He captured one stronghold of the Dacians after an- 
other, and in two wars finally destroyed their capital. There- 
upon the Dacian king and his leading men took their own lives. 
Trajan built a massive stone bridge (Fig. 251), across the 



.■-^. 



628 



Ancient Times 



Danube, made Dacia a Roman province, and sprinkled plenti- 
ful Roman colonies on the north side of the great river. The 
descendants of these colonists in the same region still call them- 
selves Roumanians and their land Roumajiia^ a form of the 













Fig. 251. The Emperor Trajan sacrificing at his New 
Bridge across the Danube 

In the background we see the heavy stone piers of the bridge, support- 
ing the wooden upper structure, built with strong -railings. In the fore- 
ground is the altar, toward which the emperor advances from the 
right, with a flat dish in his right hand, from which he is pouring a 
libation upon the altar. At the left of the altar stands a priest, naked to 
the waist and leading an ox to be slain for the sacrifice. A group of the 
emperor's officers approach from the left, bearing army standards. 
The scene is sculptured with many others on the column of Trajan at 
Rome (Fig. 263), and is one of the best examples of Roman relief 
sculpture of the second century (§ 1053) 

word '' Roman."' Trajan's vigorous policy quieted all trouble 
along the lower Danube for a long time. 
1033. Tra- The military glory of Rome, which had declined since the 

th^'parthTans ^^Y^ of Caesar, revived in splendor under this great soldier 
emperor. Trajan then turned his attention to the eastern 
frontier, extending from the east end of the Black Sea south- 
ward to the Peninsula of Sinai. In the northern section of this 



(115- 

117 A.D.) 



The Second Centnry of Peace 



629 



frontier a large portion of the boundary was formed by the 
upper Euphrates River. Rome thus held the western half of 
the Fertile Crescent, but it had never conquered the eastern 
half, with Assyria and Babylonia (see map I, p. 636). Here the 
powerful kingdom of the Parthians, kindred of the Persians, 
had maintained itself with ups and downs since the days of 
the early Seleucids, for three hundred and fifty years. Twice 




Fig. 252, Restoration of the Roman Fortified Wall on 
THE German Frontier 

This masonry wall, some three hundred miles long, protected the north- 
ern boundary of the Roman Empire between the upper Rhine and the 
upper Danube, where it was most exposed to German attack. At short 
intervals there were blockhouses along the wall, and at points of great 
danger strongholds and barracks (Fig. 254) for the shelter of garrisons 



before they had defeated Roman expeditions against them. 
Trajan, how^ever, dreamed of a great oriental empire like that of 
Alexander. He led an army against the Parthians and defeated 
them. He added Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria to the 
Empire as new provinces. He visited the ruins of Babylon to 
behold the spot where, four hundred and forty years before, 
Alexander had died ; but he said he '' saw nothing worthy of 
such fame, but only heaps of rubbish, stones, and ruins" 
(Fig. III). Then a sudden rebellion in his rear forced him 



630 



Ancient Times 



1024. Ha- 
drian (117- 

138 A.D.) 

completes 
the frontier 
defenses 









^.K.. 



J. ^^ ^l>(.oT ^ C^'^orn iofp|c-'.xf tTlATk! 



J 






-Ti- 



to a dangerous retreat Weakened by sickness and bitterly 
realizing that his great expedition was a failure, he died 
in Asia Minor while returning to Rome (117 a.d.). 

Trajan's succes- 
•^ sor, Hadrian, was 
another able sol- 
dier, but he had 
also the judgment 
of a statesman. 
He made no effort 
to continue Tra- 
jan's conquests in 
the East. On the 
contrary, he wisely 
gave them all up 
except the Penin- 
sula of Sinai (see 
map I, p. 636) and 
brought the fron- 
tier back to the 
Euphrates. But 
he retained Dacia 
and strengthened 
the whole northern 
frontier, especially 
the long barrier 
reaching from the 
Rhine to the Dan- 
ube, where the 
completion of the continuous wall (Fig. 252) was largely due 
to him. He built a similar wall along the northern boundary 
across Britain. The line of both these walls is still visible. 
As a result of these wise measures and the impressive victories 
of Trajan, the frontiers were safe and quiet for a long time. 
Nor was there any serious disturbance until a great overflow 












M^ 






v.v.x.{SKa'^-*-V 



'HiCTv 



Vg,V 



\.c->.w7-U^i{ 



Fig. 253. Letter of Apion, a young Sol- 

piER IN THE Roman Army, to his Father, 

Epimachos, in Egypt* 



The Second Century of Peace 63 1 

of tha northern barbarians (167 a.d.) in the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius brought to an end the second century of peace. 

Under Trajan and Hadrian the army which defended these 1025. The 
frontiers was the greatest and most skillfully managed organiza- Tmj^n and^ 
tion of the kind which the ancient world had ever seen. Drawn ^^^^1^" 
from all parts of the Empire, the army now consisted of all 

* This iLgyptian youth, Apion, having enlisted in the Roman army 
in company with other boys from his Httle village in Egypt, bade his 
family good-by and embarked on a great government ship from Alex- 
andria for Italy. After a dangerous voyage he arrived safely at Mise- 
num, the Roman war harbor near Naples, and hastened ashore in his 
new uniform to have a small portrait of himself painted (§,1054 and 
Plate Vin, p. 654) and to send his father the letter on the opposite page. 
It was written for him in Greek, on papyrus, in a beautiful hand by a 
hired public letter writer, and reads as follows (with the present author's 
explanations in brackets) : " Apion to Epimachos his father and lord, 
many good wishes ! First of all I hope that you are in good health, 
and that all goes well with you and with my sister .and her daughter 
and my brother always. I thank the lord Serapis [a great Egyptian 
god] that he saved me at once when I was in danger in the sea. When 
I arrived at Misenum, I received from the emperor three gold pieces 
[about fifteen dollars] as road money, and I am getting on fine. I beg 
of you, my lord father, write me a line, first about your own well-being, 
second about that of my brother and sister, and third in order that 
I may devotedly greet your hand, because you brought me up well 
and I may therefore hope for rapid promotion, the gods willing. Give 
my regards to Capiton [some friend], and my brother and sister, and 
Serenilla and my friends. I send you by Euktemon my little portrait. 
My [new Roman] name is Antonius Maximus. I hope that it may go 
well with you." On the left margin, where we see two vertical lines 
inserted, just as we are accustomed to insert them, Apion's chums (the 
other village boys who enlisted with him) sent home their regards. 
Folded and sealed as in Fig. 210, the letter went by the great Roman 
military post, arrived safely, and was read by the young soldier's waiting 
father and family in the little village on the Nile over seventeen hun- 
dred years ago (§ 1025). Then years later, after the old father had died, 
it was lost in the household rubbish, and there the modern excavators 
found it among the crumbUng walls of the house (cf. Fig. 211). The 
ancient letter had some holes in it, but with it was another letter written 
by our soldier to his sister years later, after he had long been stationed 
somewhere on the Roman frontier (§ 1025) and had a wife and children 
of his own. And that is all that the rubbish heaps of the village on the 
Nile have preserved of this lad who entered the army of the great 
Roman Empire in the second century a.d. 



632 



Ancient Times 



possible nationalities, like the British army in the Great European 
War. A legion of Spaniards might be stationed on the Euphrates, 
or a group of youths from the Nile might spend many years in 
sentry duty on the wall that barred out the Germans. Although 
far from home, such young men were enabled to communicate 
easily with their friends at home by a very efficient military 




Fig. 254. Glimpses of a Roman Frontier Stronghold 
(Restored after Waltze-Schulze) 

Above, at the left, the main gate of the fort ; the other three views show 
the barracks (of. Fig. 251) 

postal system covering the whole Empire like a vast network. 
We are still able to hold in our hands the actual letters written 
from a northern post by a young Egyptian recruit in the Roman 
army to his father and sister in a distant little village on the 
Nile (Fig. 253). When not on sentry duty sqmewhere along 
the frontier line, such a young soldiei: lived with his comrades 
in one of the large garrisons maintained at the most important 
frontier points, with fine barracks and living quarters for officers 



The Second Century of Peace 633 

and men (Fig. 254). The discipline necessary to keep the troops 
always ready to meet the barbarians outside the walls was never 
relaxed. Besides regular drill, the troops were also employed in 
making roads, building bridges, aqueducts, and public buildings 
or in repairing the frontier walls. 

Meantime the Empire had been undergoing important changes io26.0rgani- 
within. The emperors developed a system of government 'de- effiden/ 
partments alre.ady foreshadowed in the time of Claudius (§ ion), government 
To manage them, they appointed Rom^n knights. There thus 
grew up a body of experienced administrators as heads of de- 
partments and their helpers, who carried on the government of 
the Empire. It was the wise and efficient Hadrian who accom- 
plished the most in perfecting this organization of the govern- 
ment business. Thus after Rome had been for more than three 
centuries in control of the Mediterranean world, it finally pos- 
sessed a well-developed government organization such as had 
been in operation in the Orient since the days of the pyramid 
builders (§§ 74-75)- 

Among many changes, one of the most important was the 1027. Change 
abolition of the system of " farming " taxes, to be collected by taxTanners to 
private individuals — a system which had caused both the government 

^ ■' tax collectors 

Greeks (§ 623) and the Romans (§ 889) much trouble. Gov- 
ernment tax collectors now gathered in the taxes of the great 
Mediterranean world. It is interesting to recall that such a 
system had been fully organized on the Nile over three thou- 
sand years before the Romans possessed it (§ 74 and Fig. 40). 

With the complete control of these departments entirely in 1028. In- 
his own hands, the power of the emperor had much increased. powe?1)f the 
From being the first citizen of the State like Augustus, ruling emperor and 

° o ' o (jechne of 

jointly with the Senate, the emperor had thus become a sover- the Senate 
eign, whose power was so little limited by the Senate that he 
was not far from being an absolute monarch. Furthermore, the 
emperors of the second century of peace secured laws and 
regulations which made the rule of the emperor legal, although 
they unfortunately passed no laws providing for a successor 



634 Ancient Thnes 

on the death of an emperor, and dangerous conflict might ensue 
whenever an emperor died. 

1029. Italy At the same time an important change in the position of 
leadership Italy was taking place. The condition of the farmers was now 
the levefof^ SO bad that there was danger of the complete disappearance of 
the provinces free population in the country districts of Italy. Two of the 

emperors, Nerva and Trajan, even set aside large sums as capi- 
tal to be loaned at a low rate of interest to farmers needing 
money. This interest was to be used to support poor free 
children in the towns of Italy in the hope that a new body 
of free country population might be thus built up. This re- 
markable effort, one of the earliest known State charities, was, 
however, not successful. As Italy was furthermore not a manu- 
facturing country, its citizenship declined. Meantime a larger 
idea of the Empire had displaced the conception of Augustus, 
who had desired to see the Empire a group of states led and 
dominated by Italy. Whole provinces, especially in the West, 
had been granted citizenship, or a modified form of it, by the 
emperors. Influential citizens in the provinces were often given 
high rank and office at Rome. As a result there had now 
grown up a Mediterranean nation, as we have seen it fore- 
shadowed even in the time of Augustus, and Italy dropped to 
a level with the provinces. 

1030. Rise Not only did the subjects of this vast State pay their taxes 
of raw'for"the into the same treasury, but they were now controlled by the 
woe Empire g^j^g laws. The lawyers of Rome under the emperors we are 

now discussing were the most gifted legal minds the world had 
ever seen. They expanded the narrow ^Vv-law of Rome that it 
might meet the needs of the whole Mediterranean world. They 
laid the foundations for a vast imperial code of laws, the great- 
est work of Roman genius. In spirit, these laws of the Empire 
were most fair, just, and humane. Antoninus Pius, the kindly 
emperor who followed Hadrian, maintained that an accused 
person must be held innocent until proved guilty by the evi- 
dence, a principle of law which has descended to us and is 



The Second Century of Peace 63 5 

still part of our own law. In the same spirit was the protection 
of wives and children from the arbitrary cruelty of the father 
of the house, who in earlier centuries held the legal right to 
treat the members of his family like slaves. Even slaves now 
enjoyed the protection of the law, and the slave could not be 
put to death by the master as formerly, although we should 
notice that in some important matters the Roman law treated 
a citizen according to his social rank, showing partiality to the 
noble in preference to the common citizen. These laws did 
much to unify the peoples of the Mediterranean world into a 
single nation ; for they were now regarded by the law not as 
different nations but as subjects of the same great State, which 
extended to them all, the same protection of justice, law, and 
order. At the same time the earlier laws long developed by the 
older city-states were not interfered with by Rome, where they 
did not conflict with the interests of the Empire. 

The Empire as a whole was still organized in provinces, 1031. Gov- 
which steadily increased in number. Within each province by the'prov-^ 
far the large majority of the people lived in towns and cities, inces; sm- 
Such a city and its outlying communities formed a city-state people's 
like that which we found in early Greece. Each city had the public affairs 
right to elect its own governing officials and to carry on its own 
local affairs. The people still took an interest in local affairs, 
and there was a good deal of rivalry for election to the public 
offices. On the walls at Pompeii (Fig. 255) we still find the 
appeals of rival candidates for votes. At the same time each 
city was under the sovereignty of the Roman Empire and the 
control of the Roman governor of the province. 

Able and conscientious governors were now controlling affairs 1032. Close 
all over the Empire. The letters written to Trajan by the ^^e provinces 
younger Pliny, governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, regarding '^\^'^^^ ^^^ 
the interests of his province reveal to us both his own faithful- decline of the 

• •II- 1 • 1 people's 

ness and the enormous amount of provmcial busmess which interest 
received the emperor's personal attention. Fig. 253 shows us 
how such a letter looked. Such attention by emperors like 



636 



Ancient Times 



Trajan and Hadrian relieved the communities of much responsi- 
bility for their own affairs. Hadrian traveled for years among 
the provinces and became very familiar with their needs. 
Hence the local communities inclined more and more to depend 
upon the emperor, and interest in public affairs declined. Along 
with growing imperial control of the provinces, there thus began 
a decline in the sense of responsibility for public welfare. This 
was eventually a serious cause of general decay, as we shall see. 

Section 91. The Civilization of the Early Roman 
Empire : the Provinces 



1033. The 

peoples of 
the Roman 
Empire 



1034. Pom- 
peii, a pro- 
vincial city 
of the early 
Roman 
Empire 



Here was a world of sixty-five to a hundred million souls 
girdling the entire Mediterranean. Had human vision been able 
to penetrate so far, we might have stood at the Strait of Gibral- 
tar and followed these .peoples as our eyes swept along the 
Mediterranean coasts through Africa, Asia, and Europe, and 
thus back to the Strait again. On our right in Africa would 
have been Moors, North Africans, and Egyptians; in the east- 
ern background, Arabs, Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, Armenians, 
and Hittites ; and as our eyes returned through Europe, 
Greeks, Italians, Gauls, and Iberians (Spaniards) ; while north 
of these were the Britons and some Germans within the 
frontier lines. All these people were of course very different 
from one another in native manners, clothing, and customs, 
but they all enjoyed Roman protection and rejoiced in the far- 
reaching Roman peace. For the most part, as we have seen, 
they lived in cities, and the life of the age was prevailingly a 
city life, even though many of the cities were small. 

Fortunately one of the provincial cities has been preserved 
to us with much that we might have seen there if we could 
have visited it nearly two thousand years ago. The little city 
of Pompeii, covered with volcanic' ashes in the brief reign of 
Titus (79 A.D.), still shows us the very streets and houses, the 
forum and the public buildings, the shops and the markets, 



The Second Century of Peace 



637 



and a host of other things very much as we might have found 
them if we had been able to visit the place before the disaster 
(Fig. 255). We can look down long streets, where the chariot 
wheels have worn deep ruts in the pavement; we can enter 
dining rooms with charming paintings still on the walls 



*\* 



:<\^^''%-^. 



1^ r^^ ^-^^ 




iit^''' 







i. 



■\ -X 



■^-^ --—'"«» 



^>..ir/"-*.<^'^,n1»^n^,, ^.., fttf- -^■^'^^ - 



Fig. 255. A Street in Ancient Pompeii as it appears To-day 

The pavement and sidewalk are in perfect condition, as when they 
were first covered by the falling ashes (§ 1034). At the left is a pubHc 
fountain, and in the foreground is a street crossing. Of the buildings 
on this street only half a story still stands, except at the left, where we 
see the entrances of two shops, with the tops of the doors in position 
and the walls preserved to the level of the second floor above 

(Fig. 197) ; we can look into the bakers' shops with the charred 
bread still in the ovens and the flour mills standing silent 
and deserted (Fig. 256); or we can peep into kitchens with 
the cooking utensils still scattered about (Fig. 243) and the 
cooking hearth in perfect order for building another fire. The 
very life of the people in the early Roman Empire seems to 



638 



Ancient Times 



1035. Im- 
proved 
means of 
intercourse : 
Roman roads 
and bridges 



1036. Traffic 
on a Roman 
highway- 



rise before us as we tread the now silent streets (Fig. 255) of 
this wonderfully preserved place. 

Pompeii was close beside the Greek cities of southern Italy, 
and we at once discover that the place was essentially Hellen- 
istic in its life and art. Indeed, from southern Italy eastward 
we should have found the life of the world controlled by Rome 
to be simply the natural outgrowth of Hellenistic life and civili- 
zation. In some matters there had been great progress. This 
was especially true of intercourse and rapid communication. 
Everywhere the magnificent Roman roads, massively paved 
with smooth stone, like a town street (Fig. 255), led straight 
over the hills and across the rivers by imposing bridges. Some 
of these bridges still stand and are in use to-day (Fig. 260). 
Near the cities there was much traffic on such a highway. 

One met the ponderous coach of the Roman governor, per- 
haps returning from his province to Rome. The curtains are 
drawn and the great man is comfortably reading or dictating 
to his stenographer. Behind him trots a peddler on a donkey, 
which he quickly draws to one side to make room for a cohort 
of Roman legionaries marching with swinging stride, their 
weapons gleaming through a cloud of dust. Following them 
rides an officer accompanied by a shackled prisoner going up 
to Rome for trial. He is a Christian teacher named Paul 
(§ 1068). A young dandy exhibiting the paces of his fine horse 
to two ladies riding in a palanquin, grudgingly vacates the road 
before a rider of the imperial post who comes clattering down 
the next hill at high speed. Often the road is cumbered with 
long lines of donkeys laden with bales of goods or caravans of 
heavy wagons creaking and groaning under their heavy loads 
of merchandise — 'the freight trains of the Roman Empire. 
As for passenger trains, the traveler must resort to the horse 
coach or small special carriage or ride his own horse. The 
speed of travel and communication was fully as high as that 
maintained in Europe and America a century ago, before the 
introduction of the steam railway, and the roads were better. 



The Second Century of Peace 



639 



Indeed, the good Roman roads were a great advance over 1037. Navi- 
the Hellenistic Age. By sea, however, the chief difference fhi^p"ng"^ 
was the freedom from the old-time pirates (§ 949). From the 
splendid harbor laid out at the mouth of the Tiber by Claudius, 




Fig. 256. Bakery with Millstones still in Position at 
Pompeii 

In a court beside the bakery we see the mills for grinding the baker's 
flour. Each mill is an hourglass-shaped stone, which is hollow, the 
upper part forming a funnel-shaped hopper into which the grain is 
poured. The lower part of the stone is an inverted funnel placed over 
a cone-shaped stone inside it. The grain drops between the inner stone 
and the outer, and when the outer stone is turned by a long timber 
inserted in its side, the grain is ground between the two 



the traveler could take a large and comfortable ship for Spain 
and land there in a week. The Roman whose son was studying 
in Athens dispatched a bank draft for the youth's university 
expenses, and a week later the boy could be spending the 
money. A Roman merchant could send a letter to his agent 



640 



Ancient Times 



1038. Com- 
merce from 
the Atlantic 
to India and 
from the 
Baltic to the 
Mediter- 
ranean 



in Alexandria in ten days. The huge government corn ships 
that plied regularly between the Roman harbors and Alexandria 
were stately vessels carrying several thousand tons. They could 
accommodate an Egyptian obelisk weighing from three to four 
hundred tons which the emperor desired to erect in Rome 
(§ 995), besides a large cargo of grain and several hundred 
passengers. Good harbors had everywhere been equipped with 
docks, and lighthouses modeled on that at Alexandria guided 
the mariners into every harbor. In winter, however, sea 
traffic stopped. 

Under these circumstances business flourished as never be- 
fore. The good roads led merchants to trade beyond the 
frontiers and to find new markets. Goods found their way 
from Italy even to the northern shores of Europe and Britain, 
whence great quantities of tin passed up the Seine and down 
the Rhone to Marseilles. At the other end of the Empire the 
discovery of the seasonal winds in the Indian Ocean led to a 
great increase of trade with India, and there was a fleet of a 
hundred and twenty ships plying regularly across the Indian 
Ocean between the Red Sea and the harbors of India. The 
wares which they brought crossed the desert by caravan from 
the Red Sea to the Nile and were then shipped west from the 
docks of Alexandria, which still remained the greatest commer- 
cial city on the Mediterranean, the Liverpool of the Roman 
Empire. It shipped besides East Indian luxuries (§ 733) 
Egyptian paper (papyrus), linen, rich embroideries, the finest 
of glassware (§ 83), great quantities of grain for Rome, and 
a host of other things. There was a proverb that you could 
get everything at Alexandria except snow. Along the northern 
roads of the Eastern world was the caravan connection with 
China which continued to bring silk goods to the Mediter- 
ranean. It will be seen then that a vast network of commerce 
covered the ancient world from the frontiers of China and the 
coast of India on the east to Britain and the harbors of the 
Atlantic on the west. 



The Second Century of Peace 641 

Both business and pleasure now made travel very common, 1039. Fre- 
and a wide acquaintance with the world was not unusual. The 2-avd but^ 
Roman citizen of means and education made his tour of lack of hotels 
the Mediterranean much as the modern sight-seer does. Having 
arrived in the provincial town, however, he found no good 
hotels, and if he did not sleep in his own roomy coach or a 
tent carried by his sei-vants, he was obliged to pass the night 
in untidy rooms over some shop, the keeper of which enter- 
tained travelers. More often, however, the traveler of birth 
and means brought with him letters of introduction, which 
•procured him entertainment at some wealthy private house. 

For even in the provincial town the traveler found a group 1040. Society 
of successful men of business and public affairs who had gained Snces^ ^^^^ 
wealth and had been given the rank of Roman knights. 
Among them now and again was one of especial prominence 
who had been given senatorial rank by the emperor. Below 
the Senators and knights there was a free population of 
merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and craftsmen. Following 
a custom as old as the end of the Athenian Empire, these men 
were organized into numerous guilds, societies, and clubs, each 
trade or calling by itself. These societies were in some ways 
much like our labor unions. They were chiefly intended for 
mutual benefit of the members in their occupations ; some of 
them also aided in social life, in the celebration of popular 
holidays, and the society treasury paid the funeral expenses 
when a member died, just as some societies among us do. As 
likely as not the richest and most influential man of the place 
was a freedman. There was in every large town a great 
number of freedmen, and they carried on an important share 
of the business of the Empire. 

As the traveler walked about such a town he found every- 1041. Public 

- , • . ^ r a.1- benefactions 

where impressive evidences of the generous interest ot the and schools 
citizens. There were fountains, theaters, music halls, baths, JJJ^^g^g^ P''°^' 
gymnasiums, and schools, erected by wealthy men and given 
to the community. The most famous among such men was 



642 



Ancient Times 




■i 



Fig. 257. ScRiBBLiNGS OF Sicilian 

Schoolboys on a Brick in the 

Days of the Roman Empire 

In passing a brickyard, these schoolboys 
of seventeen hundred years ago amused 
themselves in scribbling school exercises 
in Greek on the soft clay bricks before 
they were baked. At the top a little boy 
who was still making capitals carefully 
wrote the capital letter S (Greek 2) ten 
times, and under it the similar letter K, also 
ten times. These he followed by the words 
"turtle" (XEAQNA), "mill" (MTAA), and 
"pail" (KAAOS), all in capitals. Then an 
older boy, who could do more than write 
capitals, has pushed the little chap aside 
and proudly demonstrated his superiority 
by writing in two lines an exercise in tongue 
gymnastics (like '' Peter Piper picked a peck 
of pickled peppers," etc.) which in our let- 
ters is as follows : 

Nai neai nea naia neoi temon, hos neoi ha naus 
This means : " Boys cut new planks for a 
new ship, that the ship might float." A 
third boy then added two lines at the bot- 
tom. The brick illustrates the spread of 
Greek (§ 727) as well as provincial educa- 
tion under the Roman Empire (§ 1041) 



Herodes Atticus, who 
built a magnificent con- 
cert hall (Fig. 183, /) for 
Athens. He has been 
called the " Andrew 
Carnegie " of his time. 
In the market place 
were statues of such 
donors, with inscrip- 
tions expressing the 
gratitude of the people. 
The boys and girls of 
these towns found open 
to them schools with 
teachers paid by the 
government, where all 
those ordinary branches 
of study which we have 
found in the Hellen- 
istic Age were taught 
(Fig. 257). The boy 
who turned to business 
could engage a stenog- 
rapher to teach him 
shorthand, and the 
young man who wished 
higher instruction could 
still find university 
teachers at Alexandria 
and Athens, and also 
at a number of younger 
universities in both 
East and West, espe- 
cially the new university 
established by Hadrian 



The Second Century of Peace 643 

at Rome and called the Athenaeum. Thus the cultivated 
traveler found men of education and literary culture wher- 
ever he went. 

To such a traveler wandering in Greece and looking back 1042. The 
some six hundred years to the Age of Pericles or the Persian deHn^th?"" 
Wars of Athens, Greece seemed to belonsr to a distant and ^^f^- 9^^^^^ 

° and Athens 

ancient world, of which he had read in the histories of Thur 
cydides and Herodotus (§§ 567, 667). Dreaming of those 
ancient days when Rome was a little market town on the Tiber, 
he might wander along the foot of the Acropolis and catch a 
vision of vanished greatness as it was in the days of Themis- 
tocles and Pericles. He could stroll through the porch of the 
Stoics (§ 761) and renew pleasant memories of his own student 
days when as a youth his father had permitted him to study 
there ; or he might take a walk out to the Academy, where 
he had once listened to the teachings of Plato's successors. 

At Delphi too he found a vivid story of the victories of 1043. The 
Hellas in the days of her greatness — a story told in marble eieMn^th?^* 
treasuries and votive monuments, the thanksgiving gifts of the ^^^^'' Delphi 
Greeks to Apollo (§ 490 and Fig. 172). As the Roman visitor 
stood there among the thickly clustered monuments, he noticed 
many an empty pedestal, and he recalled how the villas of his 
friends at home were now adorned with the statues which had 
once occupied those empty pedestals. The Greek cities which 
had brought forth such things were now poor and helpless, 
commercially and politically, in spite of the rich heritage of 
civilization which they had bequeathed to the Romans. 

As the traveler passed eastward through the flourishing 1044. The 
cities of Asia Minor and Syria, he might feel justifiable pride in eler in the 
what Roman rule was accomplishing. In the western half of M^^VranT 
the Fertile Crescent, especially on the east of the Jordan, where Syria 
there had formerly been only a nomad wilderness (§ 135), there 
were now prosperous towns, with long aqueducts, with baths, 
theaters, basilicas, and imposing public buildings, of which 
the ruins even at the present day are astonishing. All 



644 



Ancient Times 



1045. The 
Roman trav- 
eler in the 
East: Par- 

thia, Assyria, 
and Baby- 
lonia 



these towns were not only linked together by the fine roads we 
have mentioned, but they were likewise connected with Rome 
by other fine roads leading entirely across Asia Minor and the 
Balkan Peninsula. 

Beyond the desert behind these towns lay the troublesome 
Parthian Empire. The educated Roman had read how over five 
hundred years earlier Xenophon, and later Alexander the Great, 



m. 



\ 



u 



!SPP 




U f '^ f f 



T^v.; 



iiilr^ 






Fig. 258. Roman Amphitheater seen across the Huts of a 
Modern North African Village 

The town which once supported a public place of amusement like this 

has given way to a squalid village, and the whole region west of Carthage 

has to a large extent relapsed into barbarism 



had passed by the heaps of ruins which were once Nineveh 
out yonder on the Tigris (Fig. 203), and he knew from several 
Greek histories and the report of Trajan (§ 1023) that the ruin- 
ous buildings of Babylon lay still farther down toward the sea 
on the Euphrates. Trajan's effort to conquer all that country 
having failed (§ 1023), the Roman traveler made no effort to 
extend his tour beyond the frontier out into these foreign lands. 
But he could take a great Roman galley at Antioch and 
cross over to Alexandria, where a still more ancient world 



The Second Centtiry of Pt 



eace 



645 



awaited him. In the vast lighthouse (§ 733), over four hun- 1046. The 
dred years old and visible for hours before he reached the t^rA^?e"rin 
harbor, he recognized the model of the Roman lig:hthouses ^^^ ^^^^ '• 

Egypt 

he had seen. Here our traveler found himself among a 
group of wealthy Greek and Roman tourists on the Nile. 
As they left the magnificent buildings of Hellenistic Alex- 
andria, their voyage up the river carried them at once into 




Fig. 259. Ruins of Roman Baths at Bath, England 

There are hot springs at Bath, England, and here the Roman colonists 
in Britain developed a fashionable watering place. In recent years 
the soil and rubbish which, through, the centuries, had collected over 
the old Roman buildings have been removed, and we can get some 
idea of how they were arranged. The picture represents a model of 
a part of the ruins. To the right is a large quadrangular pool, 83 by 
40 feet in size, and to the left a circular bath. Over the whole a fine 
hall was built, with recesses on either side of the big pool where one 
might sit and talk with his friends 

the midst of an earlier world — the earliest world of which 
they knew. All about them were buildings which were thou- 
sands of years old before Rome was founded. Like our 
modern fellow citizens touring the same land, many of them 
were merely curious idlers of the fashionable world. They 
berated the slow mails, languidly discussed the latest news 
from Rome, while with indolent curiosity they visited the 
Pyramids of Gizeh, lounged along the temple lakes and 
fed the sacred crocodiles, or spent a lazy afternoon carving 



i 



646 



Ancient Times 



their names on the colossal statues which overshadowe'd the 
plain of Egyptian Thebes (Fig. 69), where Hadrian himself 
listened to the divine voice which issued from one of the statues 
every morning when the sun smote upon it. And here we still 
find their scribblings at the present day. But the thoughtful 
Roman, while he found not a little pleasure in the sights, took 




Fig. 260. Roman Bridge and Aqueduct at Nimes, France 

This structure was built by the Romans about the year 20 A. D. to 
supply the Roman colony of Nemausus (now called Nimes) in south- 
ern France with water from two excellent springs 25 miles distant. 
It is nearly 900 feet long and 160 feet high, and carried the water over 
the valley of the river Gard. The channel for the water is at the very 
top, and one can still walk through it. The miles of aqueduct on either 
side of this bridge and leading to it have almost disappeared 



note also that this land of ancient wonders was filled as of old 

with flocks and herds and vast stretches of luxuriant grainfields, 

which made it the granary of Rome and an inexhaustible 

source of wealth for the emperor's private purse. 

1047. An- The eastern Mediterranean then was regarded by the Romans 

tion in the^ ^s their ancient world, long possessed of its own ancient civili- 

East; later zation, Greek and oriental. There the Roman traveler found 

Roman in ' 

the West Greek everywhere, and spoke it as he traveled. But when he 



The Second Ce^itury of Peace 647 

turned away from the East and entered the western Mediter- 
ranean, he found a much more modem world, with vast regions 
where civilization was a recent matter, just as it is in America. 
Thus throughout North Africa, west of Carthage, throughout 
Spain, Gaul, and Britain, the Romans had at first found only 
rough settlements, but no cities and no real architecture. Indeed, 
these Western lands, the America of the ancients, when first 
conquered by Rome had not much advanced beyond the stage 
of the Late Stone Age settlements of several thousand years 
earlier (§ 325), except here and there, where they had come 
into contact with the Greeks or Carthaginians. 

Seneca, one of the wisest of the Romans, said, " Wherever 1048. The 
a Roman has conquered, there he also lives." This was espe- of^the^WesT' 
cially true of the West. Roman merchants and Roman officials ^""^ ^^5"' 

•' surviving 

were everywhere, and many of the cities were Roman colonies, buildings 
The language of civilized intercourse in all the West was Latin, 
the language of Rome, whereas east of Sicily the traveler heard 
only Greek. In this age western Europe had for the first time 
been building cities ; but it was under the guidance of Roman 
architects, and their buildings looked like those at Rome. In 
North Africa between the desert and the sea, west of Carthage, 
the ruins of whole cities with magnificent public buildings still 
survive (Fig. 258) to show us how Roman civilization reclaimed 
regions little better than barbarous before the Roman conquest. 
Similar imposing remains survive in western Europe, especially 
southern France. We can still visit and study massive bridges, 
spacious theaters, imposing public monuments, sumptuous villas, 
and luxurious public baths — a line of ruins stretching from 
Britain through southern France and Germany to the northern 
Balkans (Figs. 259-261). 

Just as the communities of Roman subjects once girdled the 1049. The 

,, ,. , . . 1 1 -1 T whole Medi- 

Mediterranean, so the survivmg monuments and buildmgs terranean 

which they used, still envelop the great sea from Britain east- ^g^fy^^ '""^^ 

ward to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem westward to Morocco, civilized 
They reveal to us the fact that as a result of all the ages of 



648 



Ancient Times 




Fig. 261. Restoration of Roman Triumphal Arch at 
Orange, France 

Having once adopted this form of monument (Fig. 248), the Romans 
built many such handsome arches to commemorate important victories. 
There were a number at Rome, naturally (see Fig. 246, B and /) ; of 
those built in the chief cities of the Empire, several still remain. The 
one pictured above was built at the Roman colony of Arausio (now 
called Orange), on the river Rhone, to celebrate a victory over the 
Gauls in 21 a. d. Modern cities have erected similar arches; for ex- 
ample, Paris, Berlin, London, and New York 

human development which we have studied, the whole Mediter- 
ranean world, West as well as East, had now gained a high 
civilization. Such was the picture which the Roman traveler 
gained of that great world which his countrymen ruled : in the 
center the vast midland sea, and around it a fringe of civilized 



The Second Centiiry of Peace 649 

countries surrounded and protected by the encircling line of 
legions. They too stretched from Britain to Jerusalem, and 
from Jerusalem to Morocco, like a dike restraining the stormy 
sea of barbarians outside, which would otherwise have poured 
in and overwhelmed the results of centuries of civilized devel- 
opment. Meantime we must return from the provinces to the 
great controlling center of this Mediterranean world, to Rome 
itself, and endeavor to learn what had been the course of civili- 
zation there since the Augustan Age — that is, for the last three 
quarters of the two centuries of peace. 

Section 92. The Civilization of the Early 
Roman Empire : Rome 

The visitor in Rome at the close of the reign of Hadrian 1050. Public 
found it the most magnificent monumental city in the world of R^Jme^^the 
that day. It had by that time quite surpassed Alexandria in Colosseum 
size and in the number and splendor of its public buildings. 
At the eastern end of the Forum, on ground once occupied by 
Nero's Golden House (§ 1014), Vespasian erected a vast amphi 
theater for gladiatorial combats, now known as the Colosseum 
(Fig. 262). It was completed and dedicated by his son Titus, 
who arranged for the forty-five thousand spectators which it 
held, a series of bloody spectacles lasting a hundred days. 
Although now much damaged, it still stands as one of the 
greatest buildings in the world. At the same time Vespasian 
completed the rebuilding of the city, after the great fire- of 
Nero's reign (§ 1014). 

It was especially in and alongside the old Forum that the 1051. The 
grandest buildings of the Empire thus far had grown up. The of the em- 
business of the great world capital led Vespasian and Nerva to P^''^^^ 
erect two more magnificent forums (Fig. 247, -P, 0. These two, 
with the two of Caesar and Augustus (Fig. 247, iV, (9), formed a 
group of four new forums along the north side of the old Forum. 
At the northwest end of this group of four Trajan built another, 



650 



Ancient Times 



1052. Roman 
concrete : 
Pantheon 
and Hadri- 
an's tomb 



that is, a fifth new forum (Fig. 247, R)^ which surpassed in 
magnificence anything which the Mediterranean world had ever 
seen before. On one side was a vast new business basilica, 
and beyond this rose a mighty column (Fig. 263) richly carved 
with scenes picturing Trajan's brilliant campaigns (Fig. 251). 
On each side of the column was a library building, one for 




liiiiiiiil 



Fig. 262. The Vast Flavian Amphitheater at Rome now 

CALLED THE COLOSSEUM. (RESTORED AFTER LuCKENBACH) 

This enormous building, one of the greatest in the world, was an oval 
arena surrounded by the rising tiers of seats, accommodating nearly 
fifty thousand people. We see here only the outside wall, as restored. 
It was built by the emperors Vespasian and Titus, and was completed 
in 80 A.D. (§ 1050). At the left is the colossal bronze statue of Nero, 
about 100 feet high, which originally stood in this vicinity, near the en- 
trance of his famous " Golden House," just east of the Forum (§ 1014) 

Greek and one for Latin literature. The column still stands 
beside one of the busy streets of modem Rome, but little of 
the other magnificent buildings has survived. 

In the buildings of Trajan and Hadrian the architecture of 
Rome reached its highest level both of splendor and beauty, and 
also of workmanship. Sometime in the Hellenistic Age archi- 
tects had begun to employ increasing quantities of cement 



The Second Century of Peace 



651 



concrete, though it is still uncertain where or by whom the harden- 
ing properties of cement were discovered. Under Hadrian and 
his successors the 
Roman builders com- 
pletely mastered the 
art of making colos- 
sal casts of concrete. 
The domed roof of 
Hadrian's Pantheon 
(Fig. 264) is a single 
enormous concrete 
cast, over a hundred 
and forty feet across. 
The Romans, there- 
fore, eighteen hun- 
dred years ago were 
employing concrete 
on a scale which we 
have only recently 
learned to imitate, 
and after all this 
lapse of time the 
roof of the Pantheon 
seems to be as safe 
and stanch as it 
was when Hadri- 
an's architects first 
knocked away the 
posts which sup- 
ported the wooden 
form for the great 
cast. The mauso- 
leum erected by Ha- 
drian is the greatest 
of all Roman tombs 




Fig. 263. The Column of Trajan 

This remarkable monument was erected be- 
yond Trajan's Forum in the court between his 
two libraries (Fig. 247, T). It is of Parian 
marble and stands 100 feet high. Around it 
winds a spiral band of one hundred and fifty- 
four relief scenes, passing twenty-two times 
around the shaft. This band contains twenty- 
five hundred human figures, and if it could be 
unrolled it would be over 650 feet long. An 
examination of one of these reliefs (Fig. 251) 
shows us that they are very interesting works 
of art, wrought with much skill. They record 
Trajan's great campaigns (§ 1022). The broken 
columns belonged to the magnificent Basilica 
Ulpia (Fig. 247, S), next to Trajan's Forum 
(Fig. 247, R) 



652 



Ancient Times 



and for several generations was the burial place of the em- 
perors. It survives as one of the great buildings of Rome. 
1053. Roman The r^//<?/* sculpture adorning all these monuments (Fig. 251) 
is the greatest of Roman art. The reliefs covering Trajan's 



sculpture 




Fig. 264. Interior View of the Dome of the Pantheon 
BUILT AT Rome by Agrippa and Hadrian 

The first building on this spot was erected by Agrippa, Augustus's great 
minister. But it was completely rebuilt, as we see it here, by Hadrian. 
The circular hole in the ceiling is 30 feet across; it is 142 feet above 
the pavement, and the diameter of the huge dome is also 142 feet. 
This is the only ancient building in Rome which is still standing with 
walls and roof in a perfectly preserved state. It is thus a remarkable 
example of Roman skill in the use of concrete (§ 1052). At the same 
time it is one of the most beautiful and impressive domed interiors 
ever designed. Compare the church of St. Sophia, p. 68S 



column are a wonderful picture book of his campaigns, display- 
ing greater power of invention than Roman art ever showed 
elsewhere. Of statue sculpture, however, the vast majority of 
the works now produced were copies of the masterpieces of the 
great Greek sculptors. Many such famous Greek works, which 



TJie Second Cent? try of Peace 



653 



perished long ago, are now known to us only in the form of 
surviving copies made by the Roman sculptors of this age 
and discovered in modern excavations in Italy (Fig. 218). 
The portrait sculptors followed the tendencies which they had 
inherited from the Hellenistic Age. Their portraits of the 
leading Romans are among 
the finest works of the kind 
ever wrought (Fig. 265). 

In painting, the wall deco- 
rators were almost the only 
surviving practicers of the 
art. They merely copied the 
works of the great Greek 
masters of the Hellenistic 
Age over and over again on 
the walls of Roman houses 
(Fig. 197). Portrait painting, 
however, flourished, and the 
hack portrait painter at the 
street comer, who did your 
portrait quickly for you on a 
tablet of wood, was almost 
as common as our own por- 
trait photographer. A young 
soldier in the Roman army, 
proud of his new uniform, 
would for a few cents have 
his portrait painted to send 
home in a letter to his parents 
in Egypt (Fig. 253, descriptive matter), and perfectly preserved 
examples of such work have been excavated in the Nile 
valley (Plate VIII, p. 654). 

There was now a larger educated public at Rome than ever 
before, and the splendid libraries maintained by the State were 
open to all. Authors and literary men were also liberally 




Fig. 265. Portrait of an 
Unknown Roman 

This terra-cotta head is one of the 
finest portraits ever made. It rep- 
resents one of the masterful 
Roman lords of the world, and 
shows clearly in the features those 
qualities of power and leadership 
which so long maintained the su- 
premacy of the Roman Empire 



654 Ancient Times 

1035. Leader- Supported by the emperors. Nevertheless, even under these 

ture passer^ favorable circumstances not a single genius of great creative 

from Rome imagination arose. Just as in sculpture and painting, so now in 

Athens literature, the leaders were content to imitate or copy the great 

works of the past. Real progress in literature therefore ceased. 

The leadership in such matters, held for a brief time by Rome 

in the Augustan Age, had now returned to Athens, where the 

emperors had endowed the four schools of philosophy (§ 762) 

as a government university. Nevertheless, Rome was still a 

great influence in literature ; the leading literary men of the 

Empire desired to play a part there, and when a philosopher or 

teacher of rhetoric published his lectures in book form, he was 

proud to place under the title the words, " delivered at Rome." 

1056. Latin While poetry had declined, prose writers were still productive. 

sSieca,"raci- Nero's able minister Seneca (§ 1012) wrote very attractive 

tus, and the essays and letters on personal character and conduct. They 

younger j r j 

Pliny show SO fine an appreciation of the noblest human traits that 

many have thought he had secretly adopted Christianity. His 
style became so influential that it displaced that of Cicero for a 
long time. The new freedom of speech which arose under the 
liberal emperors after the death of Domitian permitted Tacitus 
to write a frank history of the Empire from the death of Augus- 
tus to the death of Domitian (from 14 a. d. down to 96 a.d.). 
Although he allowed his personal prejudices to sway him, so that 
he has given us a very dark picture of the Julian emperors, his 
tremendous power as a writer resulted in the greatest history 
ever put together by a Roman. Among his other writings was 

* Quite a number of such portraits have been preserved in Egypt 
attached to mummies of the second century a.d. The portrait was 
painted on a thin board, laid over the face of the mummy, and bound 
down with the wrappings. The method of painting is interesting. No 
oil colors were known in the ancient world. The painter mixed his 
colors in melted wax, which he then applied while hot to the board. 
While this method was old Egyptian, the artist's skill in painting light 
was Greek (§ 650; cf. Fig. 197). It was common in Italy, and even 
poor people had their portraits painted in this way. The portrait of 
Apion, the young Roman soldier (§ 1054), must have looked like this. 




Plate VIII. One of the Oldest Surviving 
Portrait Paintings* 



The Second Century of Peace 655 

a brief account of Germany, which furnishes us our first full 
glimpse into the life of the peoples of northern Europe. The 
letters which at this time passed between the younger Pliny 
and the emperor Trajan (§ 1032) are among the most interesting 
literature of the ancient world. They remind us of the letters 
of Hammurapi of Babylon some twenty-two hundred years 
earlier (§§ 178-182). 

With these writers in Latin we should also associate several 1057. Greek 
immortal works by Greeks of the same age, though they did p'iutarch ^Ar-" 
not live at Rome. In the little village of Chaeronea in Boeotia, !^^"' ^".^ 

^ ' Pausanias 

where Philip of Macedon crushed the Greeks (§ 685), Plutarch 
at this time wrote his remarkable series of lives of the greatest 
men of Greece and Rome, placing them in pairs, a Greek and 
a Roman together, and comparing them. Although they contain 
much that belongs in the world of romance, they form an im- 
perishable gallery of heroes which has held the interest and the 
admiration of the world for eighteen centuries. At the same 
time another Greek, named Arrian, who was serving as a Roman 
governor in Asia Minor, collected the surviving accounts of the 
life of Alexander the Great. He called his book the Anabasis 
of Alexander, after the Anabasis of Xenophon (§ 631), whom 
he was imitating in accordance with the imitative spirit of the 
age. Arrian was only a passable writer of prose and certainly 
not a great historian, but without his compilation we would 
know very little about Alexander the Great. A huge guidebook 
through Greece, telling the reader all about the buildings and 
monuments still standing at that time in the leading Greek 
towns, like Athens, Delphi, and Olympia, was now put together 
by Pausanias. It furnishes us an immortal picture book in words 
of ancient Greece in all its splendor of statues and temples, 
theaters and public buildings. 

■ In science the Romans continued to be collectors of the 1058. Lack 
knowledge gained by the Greeks. Duiing a long and success- attainments 
ful official career the elder Pliny devoted himself with incredible pij^yv^Natu- 
industry to scientific studies. He made a vast collection of the ral History" 



656 Ancient Times 

facts then known in science, to be found in books, chiefly 
Greek. He put them all together in a huge work which he 
called *' Natural History" — really an encyclopedia. He was 
so deeply interested in science that he lost his life in the great 
eruption of Vesuvius, as he was trying both to study the tremen- 
dous event at short range, and (as admiral of the fleet) to save 
the fleeing people of Pompeii (§ 1034). But Pliny's "Natural 
History " did not contain any new facts of importance discovered 
by the author himself, and it was marred by many errors in 
matters which Pliny misunderstood. Nevertheless, for hun- 
dreds of years, until the revival of science in modern times 
Pliny's work was, next to Aristotle, the standard authority 
referred to by all educated Europeans. Thus men fell into an 
indolent attitude of mind and were satisfied merely to learn 
what earlier discoverers had found out. This attitude never 
would have led to the discovery of the size of the earth as 
determined by Eratosthenes (§ 745), or in modem times to 
X-ray photographs or wireless telegraphy. 
1059. End A great astronomer and geographer of Alexandria, who" 

tiU"Jden?e' flourished under Hadrian and the Antonines, was the last of 
at Alexan- ^^^ famous scientists of the ancient world. He wrote among 

dria; Ptolemy 

other works a handbook on astronomy, for the most part a 
compilation from the works of earlier astronomers. In it he 
unfortunately adopted the conclusion that the sun revolved 
around the earth as a center. His book became a standard 
work, and hence this mistaken view of the solar system, called 
the Ptolemaic system, was everywhere accepted by the later 
world. It was not until four hundred years ago that the real 
truth, already long before discovered by the Greek astronomer 
Aristarchus of Samos (§ 744), was rediscovered by the Polish 
astronomer Copernicus. It was a further sign of the decline of 
science that Ptolemy even wrote a book on Babylonian astrology 
(§ 192). Knowledge or the spherical form of the earth as shown 
by Ptolemy and earlier Gieek astronomers reached the travelers 
and navigators of later Europe, and finally led Columbus to 



The Second Century of Peace 



657 



the 



undertake the voyage to India and the East westward - 
voyage which resulted in the discovery of America. 

The position of educated Greeks at Rome was very different 1060. Cos- 
from what it had been under the Republic, when such men Se^of Rome 
were slaves or teachers in private households. Now they were 
holding important positions in the government or as teachers 
and professors paid by the government. The city was no 
longer Roman or Italian ; it had become Mediterranean, and 




Map of the World by the Astronomer and Geographer 
Ptolemy (Second Century a.d.) 



many worthy families from the provinces, settling in Rome, 
had greatly bettered the decadent society of the city. Leading 
men whose homes in youth had looked out from the hills of 
Spain upon the Atlantic mingled at Rome with influential citi- 
zens who had been born within a stone's throw of the Euphrates. 
Men of all the world elbowed each other and talked business 
in the banks and countinghouses of the magnificent new forums; 
they filled the public offices and administrative departments of 
the government, and discussed the hand-copied daily paper 



658 Ancient Times 

published by the State ; they sat in the libraries and lecture halls 
of the university and they crowded the lounging places of the pub- 
lic baths and the vast amphitheater. They largely made up the 
brilliant social life which ebbed and flowed through the streets, 
as the wealthy and the wise gathered at sumptuous dinners and 
convivial winter evenings in the city itself, or indolently killed 
time loafing about the statue-filled gardens and magnificent 
country villas overlooking the Bay of Naples, where the 
wealthy Romans spent their summer leisure. We call such 
all-inclusive, widely representative life "cosmopolitan" — a 
word of Greek origin meaning " world-city ish." 
1061. incom- This converging of all the world at Rome was evident in 
luxurier^^" ^ the luxuries now enjoyed by the rich. The outward life, houses, 
and costumes of the wealthy were on the whole not much 
changed from that which we found toward the close of the 
Republic (§§ 889-898). Luxury and display had somewhat 
increased, and in this direction oriental rarities now played 
a noticeable part (§ 1038). Roman ladies were decked with 
diamonds, pearls, and rubies from India, and they robed them< 
selves in shining silks from China. The tables of the rich were 
bright with peaches and apricots, now appearing for the first 
time in the Roman world. Roman cooks learned to prepare 
rice, forjnerly a delicacy required only by the sick. Horace 
had amusingly pictured the distress of a miserly Roman when 
he learned the price of a dish of rice prescribed by his phy- 
sician. Instead of sweetening their dishes with honey as for- 
merly, Roman households began to find a new product in the 
market place known as " sakari " ; for so the report of a ven- 
turesome oriental sailor of the first century a. d. calls the sirup 
of sugar cane, which he brought by water from India into the 
Mediterranean for the first time. This is the earliest mention 
of sugar in history. These new things from the Orient were 
beginning to appear in Roman life just as the potatoes, tobacco, 
and Indian corn of America found their way into Europe after 
the voyages of Columbus had disclosed a new Western world. 



The Second Centnry of Peace 659 

Section 93. Popularity of Oriental Religions 
AND the Spread of Early Christianity 

The life of the Orient was at the same time continuing to 1062. De- 
bring into the Mediterranean other things less easily traced f^^ ^y"*^^^ 
than rice or sugar, but much more important in their influence 3"<? Roman 
on the Roman world. The intellectual life of the Empire was 
steadily declining, as we have seen indicated by literature and 
science. Philosophy was no longer occupied with new thoughts 
and the discovery of new truths. Such philosophy had given 
way to the semireligious systems of living and ideas of right 
conduct taught by the Stoics and Epicureans (§ 761). Thought- 
ful Romans read Greek philosophy of this kind in the charm- 
ing treatises of Cicero (§ 1000) or the discussions of Seneca 
(§ 1056). Such readers had given up the old Roman gods and 
accepted these philosophical precepts of daily conduct as their 
religion. But such teaching was only for the highly educated 
and the intellectual class. 

Nevertheless, such men sometimes followed the multitude 1063. Egyp- 
and yielded to the fascination of the mysterious religions coming [Jf Em-ope^" 
in from the East. Even in Augustus's time the Roman poet 
Tibullus, absent on a military campaign which srckness had 
interrupted, wrote to his fiancee Delia in Rome : " What does 
your Isis for me now, Delia ? What avail me those brazen 
sistra ^ of hers, so often shaken by your hand .''... Now, 
now, goddess, help me ; for it is proved by many a picture 
in thy temples that man may be healed by thee." Tibullus 
and his fiancee belonged to the most cultivated class, but they 
had taken refuge in the faith of the Egyptian Isis. When 
Hadrian's handsome young Greek friend Antinoiis was drowned 
in the Nile, the emperor erected an obelisk at Rome in his 
memory, with a hieroglyphic inscription announcing the beauti- 
ful youth's divinity and his union with Osiris. Attached to 

1 Egyptian musical instruments played by shaking in the hand. 



66o 



Ancient Times 



Hadrian's magnificent villa near Rome was an Egyptian gar- 
den, chiefly sacred to Isis and Osiris and filled with their 
monuments. Plutarch wrote an essay on Isis and Osiris which 
he dedicated to a priestess of Isis at Delphi. Since the days 
of the early Empire, multitudes had taken up this Egyptian 
faith, and temples of Isis were to be found in all the larger 




Fig. 266. The Temple of Isis at Pompeii 

Even the little town of Pompeii had its temple of Isis (§ 1063), as did 

also the little Hellenistic city of Priene (Fig. 212). It has here been 

restored after Mau 



1064. The 
Great Mother 
goddess of 
Asia Minor; 
Persian Mith- 
ras; popular- 
ity of the 
oriental 
" mysteries " 



cities (Fig. 266). To-day tiny statuettes and other symbols of 
the Egyptian goddess are found even along the Seine, the 
Rhine, and the Danube. 

The Great Mother goddess of Asia Minor (§ 357), with her 
consort Attis, gained the devotion of many Romans, also. In 
the army the Persian Mithras, a god of light (§ 287), was a 
great favorite, and many a legion had its underground chapel 
where its members celebrated his triumph. All these faiths had 
their " mysteries," consisting chiefly of dramatic presentations 



The Second Cenhiry of Peace 66 1 

of the career of the god, especially his submission to deaths 
his triumph over it, and ascent to everlasting life (§ 117). 
It was believed that to witness these things and to undergo 
certain holy ceremonies of initiation would brin^ to those in- 
itiated deliverance from evil, the power to share in the endless 
life of the god and to dwell with him forever. 

The old Roman faith had little to do with conduct and held 1065. De- 
out to the worshiper no such hopes of future blessedness. Rom^^re- 
Throughout the great Roman world men were longing for ligjon and the 
some assurance regarding the life beyond the grave, and in 
the. midst of the trials and burdens of this life they wistfully 
sought the support and strength of a divine protector. Litde 
wonder that the multitudes were irresistibly attracted by the 
comforting assurances of these oriental faiths and the blessed 
future insured by their " mysteries." At the same time it was 
believed possible to learn the future of every individual by the 
use of Babylonian astrology (§ 192). Even the astronomer 
Ptolemy wrote a book on it (§ 1059). The Orientals who prac- 
ticed it were called Chaldeans (§ 238), or Magi, whence our. 
words "magic" and "magician," and everyone consulted them. 

The Jews too, now that their temple in Jerusalem had been 1066. Juda- 
destroyed by the Romans (§ 1018), were to be found in increas- 
ing numbers in all the larger cities. Strabo, the geographer, 
said of them, "This people has already made its way into every 
city, and it would be hard to find a place in the habitable world 
which has not admitted this race and been dominated by it." 
The Roman world was becoming accustomed to their syna- 
gogues ; but the Jews refused to acknowledge any god besides 
their own, and their exclusiveness brought them disfavor and 
trouble with the government (cf. Fig. 267). 

Among all these faiths of the East, the common people were 1067. Rise of 
more and more inclining toward one, whose teachers told how 
their Master, Jesus, a Hebrew, was born in Palestine, the land 
of the Jews, in the days of Augustus. Everywhere they told 
the people of his vision of human brotherhood and of divine 



662 



Ancient Times 



1068. Paul 
and the foun- 
dation of the 
earliest 
churches ; 
the New 
festament 






:^-q,->.~. 






fatherhood, surpassing even that which the Hebrew prophets 
had once discerned (§ 304). This faith he had preached for 

- - - a few years in the Aramaic language 

of his countrymen .(§ 207) — till he 
incurred their hatred, and in the 
reign of Tiberius, they had put him 
to death. 

A Jewish tentmaker of Tarsus 
named Paul, a man of passionate 
eloquence and unquenchable love for 
his Master, passed far and wide 
through the cities of Asia Minor and 
Greece, and even to Rome (§ 1036), 
proclaiming his Master's teaching. 
He left behind him a line of devoted 
communities stretching from Pales- 
tine to Rome. Certain letters (cf. 
Fig. 253) which he wrote in Greek 
to his followers were circulating 
widely among them and were read 
with eagerness. At the same time a 
narrative of the Master's life had also 
been written in Aramaic (Fig. 131), the 
language in which he had preached. 
This perished, but Greek accounts 
drawing upon the Aramaic narrative 
also appeared, and were now widely 
read by the common people. There 
were finally four leading biographies 
of Jesus in Greek, which came to 
be regarded as authoritative, and 
these we call the Four Gospels. 
Along with the letters of Paul and some other writings they 
were later put together in a Greek book now known in the 
English translation as the New Testament. 






Fig. 267. Certificate 
showing that a 
Roman Citizen had 
sacrificed to the 
Emperor as a God* 



The Second Century of Peace 



663 



The other oriental faiths, in spite of their attractiveness, 
could not offer to their followers the consolation and fellowship 
of a life so exalted and beautiful, so full of brotherly appeal and 
human sympathy as that of the new Hebrew Teacher. In the 
hearts of the toiling millions of the Roman Empire his simple 
summons, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden," proved a mightier power than all the edicts of the 
Roman emperors. The slave and the freedman, the artisan 
and craftsman, the humble and the despised in the huge bar- 
racks which sheltered the poor in Rome, listened to this new 
'' mystery " from the East, as they thought it to be, and as time 
passed, multitudes responded and found joy in the hopes which 
it awakened. In the second century of peace it was rapidly 
outstripping the other religions of the Roman Empire. 

The officers of government often found these early converts 
not only refusing to sacrifice to the emperor as a god (§ 1016) 
but also openly prophesying the downfall of the Roman 
State. The early Christians were therefore more than once 
called upon to endure cruel persecution (Fig. 267). Their 
religion seemed incompatible with good citizenship, since it 
forbade them to show the usual respect for the emperor 
and the government. 



1069. Superi- 
ority of Chris- 
tianity over 
the other 
oriental re- 
ligions 



1070. Rome 
persecutes 
the early 
Christians 



* Excavators in the ruins of Egyptian village^ like Fig. 211 have dis- 
covered over a score of such certificates, each written on a strip of 
papyrus. This specimen states that a citizen named Aurelius Horion, 
living in the village of Theadelphia in Egypt, appeared before a gov- 
ernment commission, and not only affirmed that he had always been 
faithful in the worship of the gods but that he also in the presence of 
the commission and of witnesses offered sacrifice (a slaughtered animal), 
presented a drink offering, and likewise consumed a portion of these 
offerings. In the middle we see the heavy black signature of the pre- 
siding official, and at the bottom in four lines the date, corresponding 
to our 250 A. D. Every Roman citizen at this time, no matter what his 
religion might be, was obliged to possess such a certificate and to show 
it on demand. It was called a libellus, and the owner of it was called 
a libellatictis. A Christian who would resort to such a means of escap- 
ing persecution by the government was greatly despised by the faithful, 
who refused to comply. Compare our word " libel." 



664 Ancient Times 

1071. Organ- Nevertheless, their numbers steadily grew, and each new Chris- 
churches and tian group or community organized itself into an assembly of 
^ o^^u?ar°^ members called an " ecclesia," or as we say, a church. '' Ecclesia " 
leadership was the old Greek word for Assembly of the People, and in 
these new assemblies, or churches, men of ability were now be- 
ginning to find those opportunities for leadership and power 
which the decline of citizenship in the old city republics no 
longer offered. The leaders of the churches were soon to be 
the strong men of the people, and to play 2i political as well as 
a religious role. 



Section 94. The End of the Second Century 
OF Peace 

1072. Begin- In Spite of outward prosperity, especially suggested by the 
dkS^An- magnificent buildings of the Empire, Mediterranean civilization 
O^S-^er^^^ was declining in the second century of peace. The decline be- 
A.D.) and came noticeable in the reign of Hadrian. The just and kindly 
Aurelius Antoninus, who followed Hadrian in 138 a.d., was called by 
(161-1 oA.D) ^^ Romans "the Pius," but he hardly showed energy enough 

to maintain the foreign prestige of the Empire, even though 
he strengthened the northern frontier walls. His successor, the 
noble Marcus Aurelius, therefore had to face a very serious 
situation (161 a.d.).» The Parthians, encouraged by the easy- 
going reign of Antoninus Pius, made trouble on the eastern 
frontier, and Marcus Aurelius was obliged to fight them in a 
four years' war before the frontier was safe again. 

1073. Marcus When the Roman troops returned from this war, they 
stops the brought back with them a terrible plague which destroyed 
vasion (167^- "^^^^itudes of men at the very moment when the Empire most 
180 A.D.) needed them. For at this juncture the barbarian hordes in the 

German North broke through the frontier defenses (Fig. 252), 
and for the first time in two centuries they poured down into 
Italy (167 A.D.). The two centuries of peace were ended. At 
the same time the finances of the Empire were so low that 



The Second Century of Peace 665 

the emperor was obliged to sell the crown jewels to raise the 
money necessary for equipping and supporting the army. 
With little intermission, until his death in 180 a.d., Marcus 
Aurelius maintained the struggle against the Germans in the 
region later forming Bohemia. Indeed, death overtook him 
while still engaged in the war. But in spite of victory over the 
barbarians, Marcus Aurelius was unable to sweep them entirely 
out of the northern regions of the Empire. He finally took the 
very dangerous step of allowing some of them to remain as 
farmer colonists on lands assigned to them inside of the fron- 
tier. This policy later resulted in very serious consequences to 
the Empire. 

Nevertheless, the 'ability and enlightened statesmanship of 1074, Char- 
Marcus Aurelius are undoubted. Indeed, they were only Marcus 
equaled by the purity and beauty . of his personal life. He ^""^^""^ 
regarded his exalted office as a sacred trust to which he must 
be true, in spite of the fact that he would have greatly pre- 
ferred to devote himself to reading, study, and philosophy, 
which he deeply loved. Amid the growing anxieties of his 
position, even as he sat in his tent and guided the operations 
of the legions among the forests of Bohemia in the heart of the 
barbarous North, he found time to record his thoughts and 
leave to the world a little volume of meditations written in 
Greek. As the aspirations of a gentle and chivalrous heart 
toward pure and noble living, these meditations are among the 
most precious legacies of the past. Marcus Aurelius was the 
last of a noble succession, the finest spirit among all the Roman 
emperors, and there was never another like him on the imperial 
throne. But no ruler, however pure and unselfish his pur- 
poses, could stop the processes of decline going on in the 
midst of the great Roman world. Following the two centuries 
of peace, therefore, was to come a fearful century of revolu- 
tion, civil war, and anarchy, from which a very different 
Roman world was to emerge. 



666 Ancient Times 

QUESTIONS 

Section 90. Did the struggle at the death of Nero long en- 
danger the peace of the Empire ? Who triumphed ? What were the 
two great tasks awaiting the emperors? Describe the dangers on 
the frontiers. What did Domitian do for the frontiers? Recount 
the achievements of Trajan on the lower Danube; in the Orient. 
How did Hadrian treat the conquests of Trajan ? What can you say 
of the Roman army under Trajan and Hadrian? How was the 
management of the government improved? How did this affect tax 
collecting? What can you say of agricultural conditions in Italy? 
Hov/ were the laws improved ? Tell about the people's interest in 
public affairs in the provinces. 

Section 91. Give an imaginary bird's-eye view of the Roman 
Empire from Gibraltar. Describe Pompeii. Describe Roman roads 
and their traffic. Tell something of sea travel ; of commerce ; of 
hotels ; of society in the provinces. What did a Roman traveler find 
in Athens and Delphi? in Asia Minor and Syria? in Egypt? Where 
did the Roman's ancient world lie ? Where was his modern world ? 
What can you say of Roman buildings surviving in the West ? 

Section 92. How had Rome now improved? Describe the 
Colosseum; the forums of the emperors. What can you say of 
Roman use of cement in architecture? of Roman sculpture? of 
Roman painting? What had happened to literature in Rome since 
Augustus ? Tell about the Latin prose writers ; the Greek prose 
writers. What can you say of science at Rome? at Alexandria? 
Tell about the cosmopolitan life of Rome. What can you say of 
incoming luxuries of the Orient ? 

Section 93. What can you say of intellectual life at Rome? of 
religious life? of incoming oriental religions? What was the feeling 
of the common people toward the oriental religions ? What can you 
say of the Jews at this time? Describe the rise of Christianity 
and the work of Paul. What can you say of the superiority of 
Christianity? What practical difficulty did the Christians meet in 
their relations with the Roman government? What certificate did 
a citizen have 'to possess? 

Section 94. What people first caused Marcus Aurelius trouble ? 
What event ended the second century of peace? What did Marcus 
Aurelius do to subdue the barbarians? What can you say of the 
mind and character of Marcus Aurelius? 




CHAPTER XXIX 

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE DIVISION 
OF THE EMPIRE 

Section 95. Internal Decline of the 
Roman Empire 



We have seen good government, fine buildings, education, 
and other evidences of civilization more widespread in the sec- 
ond century of peace than ever before. Nevertheless, the great 

Note. The above headpiece shows us the surviving ruins of the royal palace 
at Ctesiphon on the Tigris (see map, p. 709), once the capital of New Persia. 
The tiny human figure in one doorway will indicate to us the vast size of the 
building. The huge vault on the right was built over the enormous hall below, 
without any supporting timbers during the course of construction. It is 84 feet 
across and is the largest masonry vault of its age still standing in Asia. Here the 
magnificent kings of New Persia held their splendid court, imitated by the weak 
Roman emperors at Constantinople (§ 1099). Note the situation of Babylon 
as a river station on the great highway between Asia Minor and the East (map, 
p. 436). Ctesiphon, situated almost within sight of Babylon, was but one in a 
succession of powerful capitals, occupying this great river crossing: Akkad 
(§ t66), Babylon (§ 175), Ctesiphon (§ 1094), and, finally, Bagdad (§ 1153). A 
British expedition, after fighting several battles under the shadow of these 
ruins of Ctesiphon, captured Bagdad in 191 7. 

667 



1075. Signs 
of inner de- 
cay : former 
decline of 
farming 
continues 



I 



668 Ancient Times 

Empire which we have been studying, although in a condition 
seemingly so favorable, was suffering from an inner decay, whose 
symptoms at first hidden were fast becoming more and more 
evident. In the first place, the decline of farming, so noticeable 
before the fall of the Republic (§§ 918 f.), had gone steadily on. 

1076. Spread In Spite of the heavy taxes imposed upon it, land had con- 
tel domain"" tinned to pass over into the hands of the rich and powerful. 
system of 'pj^g Oriental system of confining landownership to large 
ship; villas domains held by the State and a few individuals had also 

a strong influence. From Asia Minor, where it was wide- 
spread under the Persians, this system had passed to Greece 
(§ 626). The Romans had found it also in Africa, the prov- 
ince behind Carthage. Already in Nero's time half of this 
province was made up of six domains, held by only six great 
landlords. Such a great estate was called a villa^ and the sys- 
tem of villa estates, having destroyed the small farmers of Italy 
(§§ 918-920), was likewise now destroying them in the prov- 
inces also. Villas now covered not only Italy but also Gaul, 
Britain, Spain, and other leading provinces. 

1077. Rise Unable to compete with the great villas, and finding the 

burden of taxes unbearable, most of the small farmers gave up 
the struggle. Such a man would often enter upon an arrange- 
ment which made him the colonus of some wealthy villa owner. 
By this arrangement the farmer and his descendants were for- 
ever bound by law to the land which they worked, and they 
passed with it from owner to owner when it changed hands. 
While not actually slaves, they were not free to leave or go 
where they pleased; and without any prospect of bettering 
themselves, or any opportunity for their children ever to pos- 
sess their own lands, these men lost all energy and independ- 
ence and were very different from the hardy farmers of early 
Rome. As we shall see, many Northern barbarians also became 
coloni within the frontiers of the Empire. 

The great villas once worked by slaves were now cultivated 
chiefly by these coloni. With the end of the long wars the 



A Century of Revohition 669 

captives who had been sold as slaves were no longer obtain- 1078. De- 
able, and slaves had steadily diminished in numbers. Their con- slave^^and 
dition had also much improved, and the law now protected improvement 

^ in the con- 

them from the worst forms of cruelty once inflicted upon dition of 
them (§ 915). We have already noticed the growing practice 
of freeing slaves, which made freedmen so common through- 
out the Empire that they were playing an important part in 
manufactures and business (§ 1040). 

Multitudes of the country people, unwilling to become colonic 1079. De- 
forsook their fields and turned to the city for relief. Many eSenlof 
did this because neo^lect of fertilization and long-continued culti- cultivated 

° , ^ lands and 

vation had exhausted their land and it would no longer produce diminishing 
crops. Great stretches of unworked and weed-grown fields 
were no uncommon sight. As a result the amount of land 
under cultivation continually decreased, and the ancient world 
was no longer raising enough food to feed itself properly. The 
scarcity was felt most severely in the great centers of popu- 
lation like Rome, where prices had rapidly gone up. Our own 
generation, afflicted in the same way, is not the first to com- 
plain of the *' high cost of living." " 

■ Offers by the emperor to give land to anyone who would 1080. Dis- 
undertake to cultivate it failed to increase the amount of land of ?hrfarm- 
under the plow. Even under the wisest emperors the govern- ^ ^"f . 
ment was therefore entirely unable to restore to the country bility to re- 
districts the hardy yeomen, the brave and independent farmers, 
who had once formed the basis of Italian prosperity — the 
men who, in the ranks of the legion, had laid the foundation 
of Roman power. The destruction of the small farmers and 
the inability of Rome to restore them formed the leading cause 
among a "whole group of causes which brought about the 
decline and fall of this great Empire. 

The country people who moved to Rome were only bring- 1081. Be- 
ing about their own extermination as a class. The large families fluences of 
which country life favors were no longer reared, the number city life 
of marriages decreased, and the population of the Empire shrank. 



6/0 



Ancient Times 



1082. De- 
cline of citi- 
zenship in 
the cities 



1083. De- 
cline of 
business 



Debased by the life of the city, the former sturdy yeoman 
lost his independence in an eager scramble for a place in the 
waiting line of city poor, to whom the government distributed 
free grain, wine, and meat. The time which should have 
been spent in breadwinning was worse than wasted among 
the cheering multitudes at the chariot races, bloody games, 
and barbarous spectacles. Notwithstanding the fine families 
who moved to Rome from the provinces under the liberal 
emperors of the second century a.d., the city became a great 
hive of shiftless population supported by the State, with 
money which the struggling agriculturist was taxed to pro- 
vide. The same situation was in the main to be found in 
all the leading cities. 

In spite of outward splendor, therefore, these cities too were 
declining. They had now learned to depend upon Rome to care 
for them even in their own local affairs, and their citizens had 
rapidly lost all sense of public responsibility. The helpful rivalry 
between neighboring city-states too had long ago ceased. Every- 
where the leading men of the cities were indifferently turning 
away from public life. -Moreover, Rome was beginning to lay 
financial obligations upon the leading men of such cities, and 
it was becoming increasingly difficult to find men willing to 
assume these burdens. Responsible citizenship, which does so 
much to develop the best among the citizens, in any community 
and which had earlier so sadly declined in Greece (§ 767), was 
passing away, never to reappear in the ancient world. 

At the same time the financial and business life of the cities 
was also declining. The country communities no longer pos- 
sessed a numerous purchasing population. Hence the country 
market for the goods manufactured in the cities was So seriously 
reduced that city industries could no longer dispose of their 
products. They rapidly declined. The industrial classes were 
thrown out of work and went to increase the multitudes of the 
city poor. City business was also much hurt by a serious lack 
of precious metals for coining money. 



A Century of Revolution 67 1 

Many of the old silver and gold mines around the Mediter- 1084. Lack 
ranean now seem to have been worked out. Wear in circula- metalTfor 
tion, loss by shipwreck, private hoards, and considerable sums coinage and 

debasement 

which went to pay for goods in India and China, or as gifts to of coins 
the German barbarians, — all these causes aided in diminishing 
the supply of the precious metals. The government was there- 
fore unable to secure enough to coin the money necessary for 
the transaction of business. The emperors were obliged to be- 
gin mixing in an increasing amount of less valuable metals and 
coining this cheaper alloy. The Roman coin collections in the 
European museums show us that the coins of Augustus were 
pure, while those of Marcus Aurelius contain twenty-five per 
cent of alloy. Two generations after Marcus Aurelius there 
was only five per cent of silver in a government coin. A dena- 
rius^ the common small coin worth nearly twenty cents under 
Augustus, a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius was 
worth only half a cent. 

Even Marcus Aurelius had trouble in finding enough money 1085. De- 

,. , i>Tn-ii •• cline of the 

to pay his army. As soon as this diinculty became serious it army; the 
paralyzed the government and demoralized the army. It was Sonsbeojme 
impossible to maintain a paid army without money. As it be- 
came quite impossible to collect taxes in money, the govern- 
ment was obliged to accept grain and produce as payment 
of taxes, and great granaries and storehouses began to take the 
place of the treasury as in ancient Egypt (§ 75). Here and 
there the army was paid in grain. On the frontiers, for lack of 
other pay the troops were assigned lands, which of course did 
them no good unless they could cultivate them. Then they 
were allowed to marry and to live with their families in little 
huts on their lands near the frontier. Called out only occa- 
sionally for drill or to repel a barbarian raid, they soon lost all 
discipline, became merely feeble militia, called by the Roman 
government " frontiersmen " (liniitanei). 

Even under Marcus Aurelius, a governor of a province 
had started a serious rebellion. Hence the emperor was now 



militia 



6/2 



Ancient Times 



1086. Stand- 
ing army in 
Italy, and its 
decline 



1087. De- 
moralization 
of army and 
State caused 
by lack of 
a law of 
succession 



1088. Rise 
of the prov- 
inces to a 
level with 
Italy and 
resulting 
competition 



obliged to keep a standing army in Italy. These legions had 
become much smaller, and they were made up increasingly of 
barbarians, especially Germans and the uncivilized natives of 
the northern Balkan, among whom the Illyrians took the lead. 
The Roman citizen was now a rarity in the ranks, and it soon 
became necessary to allow the barbarians to fight in their own 
massed formations, to which they were accustomed (§ 11 20). 
The discipline of the legion, and the legion itself, disappeared, 
and with it the superior military power of Rome was gone. 
The native ferocity and reckless bravery of uncivilized hordes, 
before which the unmilitary Roman townsmen trembled, were 
now the power upon which the Empire relied for its protection. 

This degeneration of the army was much hastened by a serious 
imperfection in the organization of the Roman State, left there 
by Augustus. This was the lack of a legal and long-practiced 
method of choosing a new emperor and transferring the power 
from one emperor to the next and thus maintaining from reign 
to reign without a break the supreme authority in the Roman 
State. The troops found that they could make a new emperor 
whenever the old emperor's death gave them an opportunity. 
For an emperor so made they had very little respect, and if he 
attempted to enforce discipline among them, they put him out 
of the way and appointed another. Rude and barbarous merce- 
nary soldiery thus became the highest authority in the State. 

Finally, the spread of civilization to the provinces had made 
them feel that they were the equals of Rome and Italy itself. 
Even under the Republic there was much foreign blood in the 
peninsula. Horace himself had been the son of a freedman, 
of nobody-knows-what race. Italy was now largely foreign in 
population. Trajan and Hadrian had been Spaniards, and more 
than one province furnished the Empire with its ruler. When, 
in 212 A.D., citizenship was granted to all free men within the 
Empire, in whatever province they lived, the leveling of dis- 
tinctions gave the provinces more and more opportunity to 
compete for leadership. 



A Century of Revolution 673 

Section 96. A Century of Revolution 

These forces of decline were bringing swiftly on a century 1089. Begin- 
of revolution which was to shipwreck the civilization of the centurlof 
early world. This fatal century be2:an with the death of revolution; 

•^ , , y o decline undei 

Marcus Aurelius in 180 a.d. The assassination of his un- Septimius 
worthy son Commodus, who reminds us of Nero, was the 2^rA"D.) ^' 
opportunity for a struggle among a group of military usurpers. 
From this struggle a rough but successful soldier named 
Septimius Severus emerged triumphant. It was he who found 
himself obliged to settle the frontier troops on their own lands, 
with resulting demoralization of the arm^y (§ 1085). He system- 
atically filled the highest posts in the government with military 
leaders of low origin. Thus, both in the army (§ 1086) and in 
the government, the ignorant and often foreign masses were 
gaining control. Nevertheless, the energy of Severus was such 
that he led his forces with success against the Parthians in the 
East, and even recovered Mesopotamia. But the arch which 
he erected to commemorate his victories, and which still stands 
in the Forum at Rome (Fig. 246, z), reveals in its barbarous 
sculptures the fearful decline of culture in Italy. The Roman 
artists who wrought these rude reliefs were the grandsons of 
the men who had so skillfully sculptured the column of Trajan 
(Fig. 251). 

The family of Septimius Severus maintained itself for a time, 1090. End 
and it was his son Caracalla who conferred citizenship on all ofSeverul 
freemen in the Empire in 212 a.d. (§ 1088). But when the line ^^^l^^"^^ 
of Severus ended (23c a.d.), the storm broke. The barbaric suing civil 

. " . wars among 

troops m one provmce after another set up their puppet provincial 
emperors to fight among themselves for the throne of the ^"^P^''°''^ 
Mediterranean world. The proclamation of a new emperor 
would be followed again and again by news of his assassina- 
tion. From the leaders of the barbaric soldier class, after the 
death of Commodus, the Roman Empire received eighty rulers 
in ninety years. One of these rulers of a day, in 248 a.d., went 



674 



A?icient Times 



1091. Fifty 
years of an- 
archy and 
the collapse 
of higher 
civilization 



1092. Bar- 
barian raids 



1093. Tem- 
porary inde- 
pendence of 
Gaul and 
evidences of 
rebuilding 
of its cities 



through the mockery of celebrating the thousand years' jubilee 
of the traditional founding of Rome. 

Most of these so-called emperors were not unlike the revolu- 
tionary bandits who proclaim themselves presidents of Mexico. 
For fifty years there was no public order, as the plundering 
troops tossed the scepter of Rome from one soldier emperor 
to another. Life and property were nowhere safe ; turbulence, 
robbery, and murder were everywhere. The tumult and fight- 
ing between rival emperors hastened the ruin of all business, 
and as the affairs of the nation passed from bad to worse, 
national bankruptcy ensued. In this tempest of anarchy during 
the third century a. d. the civilization of the ancient world 
suffered final collapse. The supremacy of mind and of scien- 
tific knowledge won by the Greeks in the third century b.c. 
(§ 743) yielded to the reign of ignorance and superstition in 
these social disasters of the third century a.d. 

As the Roman army weakened, the Northern barbarians were 
quick to perceive the helplessness of the Empire (§ 1086). In 
the East the Goths, one of the strongest German tribes, took 
to the water, and their fleet passed out of the Black Sea into 
the Mediterranean. While they devastated the coast cities far 
and wide, other bands pushed down through the Balkan Penin- 
sula and laid waste Greece as far as the Peloponnese. Even 
Athens was plundered. The barbarians penetrated far into 
Italy ; in the West they overran Gaul and Spain, and some 
of them even crossed to Africa. In Gaul they burned city 
after city, and their leaders stood by and laughed in exultation 
as they saw the flames devouring the beautiful buildings of the 
Roman cities (Figs. 258-261). 

Under these circumstances, when the people of the plundered 
lands saw that the Empire could no longer defend them, they 
organized for their own defense. In this way Gaul, for exam- 
ple, became an independent nation under its own rulers for 
years in this terrible century. Its people repulsed the barbarians 
and slowly rebuilt their burned cities. They dared not spread 



A Century of Revolution 675 

out the city, as before, but grouping all the buildings dose to- 
gether, the town was built compactly and surrounded by a 
massive wall, made largely of blackened blocks of stone taken 
from the ruined buildings burned by the barbarians. In no less 
than sixty cities of France to-day sections of these heavy walls, 
when taken down to make room for modern improvements, 
are found to contain these smoke-blackened blocks. Far out- 
side the city walls containing these blocks, excavation has re- 
vealed to us the foundations of the splendid Roman structures 
from which the blocks came and which formed the once larger 
city destroyed by the barbarians. 

At the same time a new danger had arisen in the East. A 1094. Rise of 
revival of patriotism among the old Persian population had (^26 Zd!)^^ 
resulted in a vigorous restoration of their national life. Their "n^erher 

^ Sassanian 

leaders, a family called Sassanians (or Sassanids), overthrew the kings 
Parthians (226 a.d.) and furnished a new line of enlightened 
Persian kings. As they took possession of the Fertile Crescent 
and established their capital at Ctesiphon on the Tigris, not far 
north of Babylon, a new Orient arose on the ruins of seemingly 
dead and forgotten ages. Fine buildings of Persian architec- 
ture (headpiece, p. 667), though influenced by Greek art, again 
looked down upon the Tigris and Euphrates, beautiful works 
of the Persian artist and craftsman again began to appear, and 
the revered religion of Zoroaster took on new life. We have 
in this movement a last revival of that old Iranian race which 
produced the religion of Zoroaster and built up the vast Persian 
Empire. The Sassanian kings organized a much more powerful 
State than that of the Parthians which they overthrew, and they 
regarded themselves as the rivals of the Romans for the Empire 
of the world. The old rivalry between the Orient and the 
West, as in the days of Greece and Persia, was now con- 
tinued, with Rome as the champion of the West, and this New 
Persia as the leader of the East (see map II, p. (iz^)._ 

Just as the family of Severus was declining, this empire of 
New Persia rose into power as a dangerous foe of the Roman 



A 



676 



Ancie^it Thnes 



1095. P^^' 

myra a buffer 
state against 
New Persia ; 
Zenobia 



1096. Aure- 
lian (270- 
275 A.D.) 
recovers 
the East 
and Gaul ; 
Diocletian 
restores order 
(284 A.D.) 



Empire on the eastern frontier. From this time on the Empire 
was seriously threatened on two fronts, on north and east. As 
in Gaul, so in the East, the rise of a usurper within the Roman 
Empire for a time saved the region from absorption by the 
outside enemy. One of the eastern governors, using Palmyra 
as a center, gained his independence and defended the eastern 
frontier on his own account. After his death his widow, the 
beautiful Zenobia, ruled at Palmyra as queen of the East, over 
a realm which included Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Her 
kingdom served for a time as a buffer state, protecting the 
Roman Empire from attack by New Persia. 

With a powerful oriental state under Zenobia holding the east- 
ern Mediterranean lands, and an able senator named Tetricus, 
master of Gaul, Britain, and northern Spain, ruling the West 
as an independent emperor (§ 1093), it looked as if the Roman 
Empire were about to fall to pieces. The anarchy which we 
have already noticed within the Empire was at its worst, when 
one of the soldier emperors, named Aurelian (270 to 275 a.d.), 
advanced against Zenobia, defeated her army, captured Pal- 
myra and took the queen prisoner. Similar success in Gaul 
enabled him to celebrate a gorgeous triumph in Rome, with 
Zenobia and Tetricus led through the streets of the city along 
with the other captives who adorned his triumph. Aurelian 
restored some measure of order and safety. But, in order to 
protect Rome from the future raids of the barbarians, he built 
entirely around the great city the massive wall (Fig. 249, and 
plan, p. 622) which still stands, — a confession of the dangerous 
situation of Rome in the third century a. d. It was a little over 
a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius, when the emperor 
Diocletian restored what looked like a lasting peace (284 a.d.). 

If at this point we look back some four hundred years over 
the history of Rome since she became mistress of the world, 
we discern three great periods.^ With the foundation of the 

1 Periods of history do not end or begin abruptly. There is always a gradual 
transition from one to the next, and the dates in this paragraph merely suggest 
the points at which the transition was very evident. 



I 




AS ORGANIZED BY DIOCLETIAN and CONSTANTINE ^^^^-^ 

30° Boundary Line of the Empire 



ROMAN EMPIRE 
) BY DIOCLETIAN and 

try Line of the Empire 

Line of Division between the Eastern and Western Empires 

I Prefecture of the Orient 
I Prefecture of Illyricum 
I Prefecture of Italy 
I Prefecture of Gaul 



I 



Scale of Statute Miles 
100 200 300 400 500 




^ 



A Century of Revolution Gyj 

Empire by Augustus there began two centuries of peace, and 1097. Sum- 
this period of peace was both preceded and followed by a cen- Snutrie/oy 
tury of revolution. We have thus had a century of revolution, Ro^^n im- 

■^ penalism 

two centuries of peace, and then a second century of revolu- culminating 
tion. The first century of revolution led from the Gracchus (284a.dV^" 
brothers to the triumph of one-man power and the foundation 
of the Empire by Augustus (that is, about 133 to 30 B.C.). 
The two centuries of peace beginning with the foundation of 
the Empire by Augustus continued into the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius (that is, about 30 B.C. to nearly 170 a.d.). The sec- 
ond century of revolution led from the enlightened reign of 
Marcus Aurelius to oriental despotism under Diocletian (that 
is, about 180 to about 284 a.d.). Thus four centuries of 
Roman imperialism, after bringing forth such masterful men 
as Sulla and Julius Caesar, had passed through various stages 
of one-man power, to end in despotism. We are now first to 
examine that despotism and then to see how it was over- 
whelmed by two centuries of barbarian invasions from the 
North, while at the same time it was also crushed by the 
reviving power of the Orient, whose assaults were to last 
many centuries more (study map, p. 676). 



Section 97. The Roman Empire an Oriental 
Despotism 

The world which issued from the disasters of this second 1098. Diode- 
revolution toward the end of the third century a.d. under 3o"a d!) ; 
Diocletian was a totally different one from that which Augustus Em^?e"?n 
and the Roman Senate had ruled three centuries before, oriental 

despotism 

Diocletian deprived the shadowy Senate of all power, except 
for the municipal government of the city of Rome. The Roman 
Senate, now reduced to a mere City Council, a Board of Alder- 
men, disappeared from the stage of history. The emperor thus 
became for the whole Roman world what he had always been 
in Egypt, — an absolute monarch with none to limit his power. 



6/8 



Ancient Times 



1099. New 
Persian in- 
fluence ; tri- 
umph of 
oriental 
influences 



1 100. Em- 
peror an 
oriental Sun- 
god ; triumph 
of despotism, 
end of de- 
mocracy 



The State had been completely militarized and orientalized. 
With the unlimited power of the oriental despot the emperor 
now assumed also its outward symbols — the diadem, the gor- 
geous robe embroidered with pearls and precious stones, the 
throne and footstool, before which all who came into his 
presence must bow down to the dust. 

Recent discovery has shown that the gorgeous costume in 
which the Roman emperor now decked himself was copied 
from that of the Sassanian kings of New Persia. 'The Roman 
leaders had seen much of this new empire of the East for two 
generations, and from its brilliant oriental court these outward 
matters of royal costume, court symbols, and customs were 
adopted. Oriental influence on Roman beliefs, such as we 
have seen in the spread of the worship of the Persian god 
Mithras (§ 1064), was now also affecting the notion of the 
divinity of the emperor (§1016). In these things we recog- 
nize a further stage in that commingling of the East and 
West, begun by Alexander the Great over six hundred years be- 
fore (§ 703). Indeed, the Roman Empire had now become like 
a vast sponge absorbing the life and civilization of the Orient. 

As a divinity, the emperor had now become an oriental Sun- 
god and he was officially called the " Invincible Sun." His 
birthday was on the twenty-fifth of December; that is, about 
the date when the sun each year begins to turn northward 
after he has reached his southernmost limit. The inhabitants 
of each province might revere their particular gods, undis- 
turbed by the government, but all were obliged as good citi- 
zens to join in the official sacrifices to the head of the State as 
a god. With the incoming of this oriental attitude toward the 
emperor, the long struggle for democracy, which we have fol- 
lowed through so many centuries of the history of early man, 
ended in the triumph of oriental despotism. 

The necessity of leading the army against New Persia, the 
new oriental enemy, carried the emperor much to the East. 
The result was that Diocletian resided most of the time at 



A Century of Revolutio7i 679 

Nicomedia in Asia Minor (see map, p. 676). As a natural con- noi. Diode, 
sequence the emperor was unable to give close attention to the iJf th^East 
West. Following some earlier examples, and perhaps remem- ^"^ appoints 

^ ^ an emperor 

bering the two consuls of the old Republic, Diocletian there- of the West 

fore appointed another emperor to rule jointly with himself, to 

give his attention to the West. The second emperor was to 

live at Milan in the Po valley, really the most important region 

of Italy. All government edicts, whether issued in the East or 

the West, were signed by both emperors, and it was not 

Diocletian's intention to divide the Roman Empire, any more 

than it had been the purpose to divide the Republic in electing 

two consuls. The final result was nevertheless the division of 

the Roman Empire into East and West, just as it had once 

been divided by the war between Caesar in the West and 

Pompey in the East, or the similar conflict between Octavian 

in the West and Antony in the East. 

In order to avoid the recurrence of civil war at the death 1102. Diocle- 
of an emperor, Diocletian endeavored to arrange the transfer ments^fo^the 
of power from one emperor to the next. He and his fellow succession 
emperor each bore the title of Augustus. The two Augustuses 
appointed two subordinates, to be called Caesars. There were 
thus two emperors, or Augustuses, and two subordinate emper- 
ors, or Caesars, intended to be something like vice presidents. 
For it was provided that at the death or resignation of either 
Augustus one of the Caesars should at once take his place 
as Augustus, and another Caesar was then to be appointed. 
These arrangements display litde statesmanship, and there was 
no possibility of their permanence. 

In accordance with this organization, involving four rulers, 1103. Diode 
the provinces of the Empire, over a hundred in number, were istrative 
divided into four great groups, or prefectures (see map, p. 676), organization 
with a prefect over each. Still smaller groups of provinces, 
twelve in number, were called dioceses^ mostly ruled by vicars^ 
the subordinates of the prefects ; while under the vicars were 
the governors of the separate provinces. The business of each 



68o Ancient Times 

province was organized in the hands of a great number of local 
officials graded into many successive ranks and classes from 
high to low. There was an unbroken chain of connection from 
the lowest of these up through various ranks to the governor, 
the vicar, and the prefect, and finally to the emperor himself. 

1104. Op- The financial burden of this vast organization, begun under 
tion ^ "^ Diocletian and completed under his successors, was enormous. 

For this multitude of government officials and the clamorous 
army had all to be paid and supported. It was a great expense 
also to maintain the luxurious oriental court of the emperor, 
surrounded by his innumerable palace officials and servants. 
But now there were/^z/r such imperial courts, instead of one. 
At the same time it was still necessary to supply '' bread and 
circuses" for the populace of the towns (§1081). In regard to 
taxation, the situation had grown steadily worse since the reign 
of Marcus Aurelius. The amount of a citizen's taxes therefore 
continued to increase, and finally little that he possessed was 
free from taxation. 

1 105. Bad When the scarcity of coin forced the government to accept 
tax collection grain and produce from the delinquent taxpayer, taxes had 

become a mere share in the yield of the lands. The Roman 
Empire thus sank to a primitive system of taxation already 
thousands of years old in the Orient. It was now customary 
to oblige a group of wealthy men in each city to become respon- 
sible for the payment of the entire taxes of the district each 
year, and if there was a deficit, these men were forced to make 
up the lacking balance out of their own wealth. The penalty of 
wealth seemed to be ruin, and there was no motive for success 
in business when such prosperity meant ruinous overtaxation. 

1106. Loss Many a worthy man secretly fled from his lands to become 
ers and m^S" ^ wandering beggar, or even to take up a life of robbery and 
busTn^ss violence. The Roman Empire had already lost, and had never 
men ; obiiga- been able to restore, its prosperous farmins: class. It now lost 

toiy practice vi • i r- r j d 

ofoccupa- hkewise the enterprising and successful business men of the 
middle class. Diocletian therefore endeavored to force these 



A Century of Revolution 68 1 

classes to continue their occupations. He enacted laws for- 
bidding any man to forsake his lands or occupation. The 
societies, guilds, and unions in which the men of various occu- 
pations had long been organized (§ 1040) were now gradually 
made obligatory, so that no one could follow any calling or 
occupation without belonging to such a society. Once a 
member he must always remain in the occupation it implied. 

Thus under this oriental despotism the liberty, for which H07. Disap 
men had striven so long, disappeared in Europe, and the once Hberty and^ 
free Roman citizen had no independent life of his own. For ^"j^.^ citizen- 
the will of the emperor had now become law, and as such his 
decrees were dispatched throughout the length and breadth of 
the Roman dominions. Even the citizen's wages and the prices 
of the goods he bought or sold were as far as possible fixed for 
him by the State. The emperor's innumerable officials kept an 
eye upon even the humblest citizen. They watched the grain 
dealers, butchers, and bakers, and saw to it that they properly 
supplied the public and never deserted their occupation. In 
some cases the State even forced the son to follow the profes- 
sion of his father. In a word, the Roman government now 
attempted to regulate almost every interest in life, and where- 
ever the citizen turned he felt the control and oppression of 
the State. 

Staggering under his crushing burden of taxes, in a State 1108. The 
which was practically bankrupt, the citizen of every class had ^^-^^^^ f^j. ^he 
now become a mere cog in the vast machinery of the govern- ^^^^^ 
ment. He had no other function than to toil for the State, 
which exacted so much of the fruit of his labor that he was 
fortunate if it proved barely possible for him to survive on what 
was left. As a mere toiler for the State, he was finally where 
the peasant on the Nile had been for thousands of years. The 
emperor had become a Pharaoh, and the Roman Empire a 
colossal Egypt of ancient days. 

The century of revolution which ended in the despotic reor- 
ganization by Diocletian completely destroyed the creative ability 



'A 



682 Ancient Times 

1109. End of of ancient men in art and literature, as it likewise crushed all 
of^hFghfr^^ progress in business and affairs. In so far as the ancient world 
civilization in ^g^g Qj^g q{ progress in civilization, its history was ended with 

the ancient r o •> j 

world ; future the acccssion of Diocletian. Nevertheless, the Roman Empire 
Rome had still a great mission before it, in the preservation of at least 

something of the heritage of civilization, which it was to hand 
down the centuries to us of to-day. Moreover, it was out of the 
fragments of the Roman Empire that the nations of modern 
Europe grew up. We are now to watch it then as it falls to 
pieces, still mechanically maintaining its hold upon its mighty 
heritage from the past, and furnishing the materials, as it were, 
out of which our world of to-day has been built up. 



Section 98. The Division of the Empire and the 
Triumph of Christianity 

mo. Shift of Under Diocletian Italy had been reduced to the position of a 
power"from taxed province, and had thus lost the last vestige of superiority 
Balkan' Pen *~'^^^ ^^ Other provinccs of the Empire. The dangerous flood 
insula of German barbarians along the lower Danube and the threat- 

ening rise of New Persia had drawn the emperor into the 
northeast corner of the Empire. During the century of revo- 
lution just past, the Illyrian soldiers of the Balkan Peninsula 
had filled the army with the best troops and furnished more 
than one emperor. An emperor who had risen from the ranks 
of provincial troops in the Balkans felt little attachment to 
Rome. Rome had not only ceased to be the residence of an 
emperor, but the center of power had clearly shifted from Italy 
to the Balkan Peninsula. The movement was the outcome of 
a reviving respect for the East and a long growing interest 
in the Balkan Peninsula, observable even as early as Hadrian, 
who spent vast sums in the beautification of xA.thens. After 
the struggles following Diocletian's death, — struggles which his 
arrangements for the succession (§ 1 102) failed to prevent, — the 
emperor Constantine the Great emerged victorious (324 a.d.). 



A Century of Revohition 



683 



He did not hesitate to turn to the eastern edge of the Balkan 
Peninsula and establish there a New Rome as his residence. 

The spot which he selected showed him to be a far-seeing 
statesman. He chose the ancient Greek town of Byzantium, 




Fig. 268. View across the Bosporus 1 rom Europe to Asia 

This view places us on the European shore of the Bosporus, and we 
look eastward to the Asiatic shore, with the mountains behind, rising to 
the table-land of central Asia Minor (§ 351). Just south of us (at the 
right) on the same shore is Constantinople ; a little to the north (the 
left) is the place where Darius the Great probably built his bridge 
when he first invaded Europe to conquer the Scythians (§ 500). The 
towers and walls before us are part of a fortress built by the Turkish 
conquerors when they crossed from Asia for the conquest of Constan- 
tinople in 1453 -'^•D- (§ 1 158)- For ages this intercontinental crossing has 
been the commercial and military link between Europe and Asia, and 
as the author writes (May, 19 16) the greatest nations of the world are 
fighting for its possession 



mi. Con- 

stantine (324 
-337 A.D.) 
makes Con- 
stantinople 
his residence 
and seat of 
government 
(330 A.D.) 



on the European side of the Bosporus (Fig. 268), — a magnifi- 
cent situation overlooking both Europe and Asia, and fitted to 
be a center of power in both. In placing his new capital here, 
Constantine established a city, the importance of which was 
only equaled by the foundation of Alexandria in Egypt. The 



684 



Ancient Times 



emperor stripped many an ancient city of its great monuments 
in order to secure materials for the beautification of his splendid 
residence (Fig. 269). By 330 a. d. the new capital on the 




Fig. 269. Ancient Monuments in Constantinople 

The obelisk in the foreground (nearly 100 feet high) was first set up in 
Thebes, Egypt, by the conqueror Thutmose III (§111); it was erected 
here by the Roman emperor Theodosius (§1125). The small spiral 
column at the right is the base of a bronze tripod set up by the Greeks 
at Delphi (Fig. 172) in commemoration of their victory over the Persians 
at Plataea (§ 517). The names of thirty-one Greek cities which took 
part in the battle are still to be read, engraved on this base. These 
monuments of ancient oriental and Greek supremacy stand in what was 
the Roman horse-race course when the earlier Greek city of Byzantium 
became the Eastern capital of Rome (§ 1 1 11). Finally, the great mosque 
behind the obelisk, with its slender minarets, represents the triumph of 
Islam under the Turks, who took the city in 1453 a.d. 



Bosporus was a magnificent monumental city,, worthy to be 
the successor of Rome as the seat of the Mediterranean 
Empire. It was named Constantinople (" Constantine's city ") 
after its founder. 



I 



A Century of Revolution 685 

The transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to the east 1112. Con- 
side of the Balkan Peninsula- was a decided triumph for the and^the^sepa- 
older civilization of the eastern Mediterranean. But it meant ration of East 

, . . - and West ; 

the separation of east and west — the cutting of the Roman continuance 
Empire in two. Although the separation did not take place °^^^''^'"^ 
abruptly, yet within a generation after Constantinople was 
founded, the Roman Empire had in fact if not in name become 
two states, and they were never more than temporarily united 
again. Thus the founding of Constantinople sealed the doom 
of Rome and the western Mediterranean lands of the Empire. 
For a time the eastern half of the Empire, ruled by Constanti- 
nople, was greatly strengthened by Diocletian's reorganization. 
Nevertheless, it too was doomed to steady decline. We have 
seen that citizenship in the Roman Empire no longer meant a 
share in the control of public affairs. Able men of affairs were 
no longer arising among such citizens, except as the army raised 
one of its commanders to the position of emperor. Peaceful 
civil life was no longer producing statesmen to control govern- 
ment affairs as in the days of the Roman and Greek republics. 

In this situation, as the Christian churches steadily increased 1113. The 
in numbers, and their influence grew, they more and more newarena^for 

needed the guidance of able men. The management of the ^!^f "^^ ^^ 
^ ^ able men 

great Christian communities and their churches called for in- 
creasing ability and experience. Public discussion and disputes 
in the Church assemblies enabled gifted men to stand forth, and 
their ability brought them position and influence. The Chris- 
tian Church thus became a new arena for the development of 
statesmanship, and Church statesmen were soon to be the lead- 
ing influential men of the age, when civil democracy had long 
since ceased to produce such men. 

These officers of the Church gradually devoted themselves 1114. The 
more and more to Church duties until they had no time for any- powerful 
thing else. They thus came to be distinguished from the other ° J^^s^^'"" ' 
members and were called the clergy, while the people who made bishops, and 

„ , , , 17- rnu archbishops 

up the membership were called the laymen, or the laity, Ihe 



686 Ancient Times 

old men who cared for the smaller country congregations were 
finally called merely presbyters^ a Greek word meaning " old 
men," and our word '' priest " is derived from this Greek term. 
Over the group of churches in each city, a leading priest gained 
authority as bishop. In the larger cities these bishops had such 
influence that they became archbishops, or head bishops, hav- 
ing authority over the bishops in the surrounding cities of the 
province. These church arrangements were modeled to a large 
extent on those of the Roman government, from which such 
terms as " diocese "(§ 1103) were borrowed. Thus Christianity, 
once the faith of the weak and the despised, became a power- 
ful organization, strong enough to cope with the government. 

1115. Chris- The Roman government therefore began to see the useless- 
on"a?egar^ ncss of persecuting the Christians. The struggle to suppress 
basis with them w^as one which decidedly weakened the Roman State, at 

other reh- -^ ' 

gions a time when the long disorders of the century of revolution 

made the emperors feel their weakness. In the time of Diocle- 
tian, his " Caesar " Galerius, feeling the dangers threatening 
Rome from withoict and the uselessness of the struggle against 
the Christians tvithin^ issued a decree, in 311 a.d., by which 
Christianity was legally recognized. Its followers received the 
same legal position granted to the worshipers of the old gods. 
This decree was also maintained by Constantine, and under his 
direction the first great assembly, or council, of all the churches 
of the Roman world was held at Nicaea, in northeastern Asia 
Minor. 

1116. juUan The victory of Christianity was not yet final however. After 
tate^' (361^- Constantine's sons and nephews had spent years in fighting 
363 A.D.) fgj- ^Q crown, which one of the sons held for a time, the sur- 
vivor among the group was Constantine's nephew Julian, the 
ablest emperor since the second century of peace. Like Marcus 
Aurelius, he was a philosopher on the throne ; for he was 
devoted to the old literature and philosophy of the Greeks. 
He therefore renounced Christianity and did all that he could 
to retard its progress and to restore Hellenistic religion and 



A Century of Revolution 68/ 

civilization. He was an able general also. He defeated the 
German barbarians in the West, but while leading his army in 
the East against the New Persians he died. The Church called 
him Julian " the Apostate " ; he was the last of the Roman 
emperors to oppose Christianity. 

QUESTIONS 

Section 95. In spite of seeming prosperity, what was now the 
real condition of the Roman Empire 1 What can you say of the de- 
cline of farming.? Describe the system of coloni. What was now 
the condition of slavery? What can you say of the extent of culti- 
vated lands and the food supply 1 What was happening to the farm- 
ing class .-^ Discuss city life; the decline of business. Discuss the 
supply of precious metals and money. How did this difficulty affect 
the army.f* What was the effect of the lack of a law of succession 
on the army.? What was now Italy's situation in the Empire? 

Section 96. Tell what happened after the death of Marcus 
Aurelius. Describe the conditions following the time of the family 
of Septimius Severus. What did the Northern barbarians do ? What 
happened in Gaul? Describe the rise of New Persia. Tell about 
Palmyra and Zenobia. How were Gaul and Palmyra subdued ? How 
did Aurelian protect Rome? Who ended the century of revolution, 
and when? How can we summarize the four centuries of Roman 
imperialism which ended with the advent of Diocletian (284 B.C.)? 

Section 97. How did Diocletian treat the Roman Senate? What 
did the Roman emperor become? What influences triumphed? 
What became of democracy ? What can you say about the emperor's 
place of residence? What arrangements for the succession did 
Diocletian make ? Tell about his administrative organization. What 
can you say of taxation under Diocletian ? How did this affect men of 
means? What two classes of men had the Empire now lost ? What 
can you say of liberty and free citizenship ? What was the result ? 

Section 98. Where had the center of power shifted? Who tri- 
umphed in the struggles following Diocletian's death? Where did 
he establish the new eastern Rome ? What was the effect upon old 
Rome ? upon the Empire ? What can you say of the opportunities 
offered by the Church to able men? Tell about its organization. 
How did Chrisdanity gain legal recognition? When? Tell about 
Julian the Apostate. 






sSj^*' -fe^ V« ^^ 








1 1 17. The 

barbarian 
danger 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE BARBARIANS AND THE END OF 
THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Section 99. The Barbarian Invasions and the 
Fall of the Western Empire ^ 

We have often met the Indo-European barbarians who occu- 
pied northern Europe, behind the civilized belt on the north of 
the Mediterranean. wSince the days of the Stone Age men this 

1 This account of the absorption of the western part of the ancient world by 
the barbarians is here necessarily very brief. A fuller presentation of this period 
will be found in Robinson's Medieval and Modem Times (chaps, ii-v), a book 
which continues this Ancient Times. 

Note. The abo\'e headpiece shows us the interior of the famous church of 
St. Sophia, built at Constantinople by Justinian from 532 to 537 a-.d. (§ 1149). The 
first church on this spot was of the usual basilica form (Fig. 271,3) , but Justinian's 
architects preferred an oriental dome. They therefore roofed the great church 
with a gigantic dome 183 feet high at the center, sweeping clear across the audi- 
ence jroprn and producing the most imposing vaulted interior now surviving from 

688 



The Triumph of the Barbarians 689 

northern region had never advanced to a high civilization. Its 

barbarian peoples had been a frequent danger to the fringe of 

civilized nations along the Mediterranean. We recall how the 

Gauls overwhelmed northern Italy, even capturing Rome, and 

how they then overflowed into the Balkan Peninsula and Asia 

Minor (§§ 722,813,815). We remember the terror at Rome when 

the Germans first came down, and how they were only defeated 

by a supreme effort under the skillful soldier Marius (§ 936). 

By superior organization the Romans had been able to feed ms. Former 

and to keep together at a given point for a long time a larger dority"anr 

number of troops than the barbarians. This was the secret of '^^^^ '"f^"- 

onty to bar- 
Caesar s success against them (§ 955). During the century of barian armies 

revolution after the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Roman army 
organization had gone to pieces and the barbarians raided the 
lands of the Empire without hindrance. After such raids the bar- 
barians commonly withdrew. J^y the time of Diocletian, however, 
the barbarians were beginning to form permanent settlements 
within the limits of the Empire, and there followed two centu- 
ries of barbarian migration, in the course of which they took 
possession of the entire western Mediterranean world. 

The Germans were a fair-haired, blue-eyed race of men of 1119. The 
towering stature and terrible strength. In their native forests peo^e" 
of the North each German people or nation occupied a very ^^^^"^^ 
limited area, probably not over forty miles across, and in num- 
bers such a people had not usually more than twenty-five or 
thirty thousand souls. They lived in villages, each of about a 
hundred families, and there was a head man over each village. 
Their homes were but slight huts, easily moved. They had 
little interest in farming the fringe of fields around the village, 
much preferring their herds, and they shifted their homes often. 

the ancient world. Justinian is said to have expended i8 tons of gold and the 
labor of ten thousand men in the erection of the building. Since the capture of 
Constantinople by the Turks (1453 A.D.), the vast church has served as a Moham- 
medan mosque. The Turks have whitewashed the gorgeous mosaics with which 
the magnificent interior is adorned, and large circular shields bearing the mono- 
gram of the Sultan have been hung against tin- walls. 



/ 



690 



Ancient Times 



1 120. The 

German 
peoples in 
migration 
and war 



1121. Admis- 
sion of whole 
German 
peoples to 
settle in the 
Empire and 
serve in the 
army 



They possessed no writing and very little in the way of indu& 
tries, manufactures, or commerce. A group of noble families 
furnished the leaders (dukes) or sometimes kings, governing 
the whole people. 

Hardened to wind and weather in their raw Northern climate, 
their native fearlessness and love of war and plunder often led 
them to wander, followed by their wives and families in heavy 
wagons. An entire people might comprise some fifty villages, 
but each village group remained together, protected by its body 
of about a hundred warriors, the heads of the village families. 
When combined, these hundreds made up an army of five to 
six thousand men. Each hundred held together in battle, as a 
fighting unit. They all knew each other ; the village head man, 
the leader of the group, had always lived with them ; the warrior 
in the tumult of battle saw all about him his friends and rela- 
tives, the sons of his brothers, the husbands of his daughters. 
In spite of lack of discipline, these fighting groups of a hundred 
men, united by such ties of blood and daily association, formed 
battle units as terrible as any ever seen in the ancient world. 
Their eager joy in battle and the untamed fierceness of their 
onset made them irresistible. 

The highly organized and carefully disciplined Roman legions, 
which had gained for Rome the leadership of the world, were 
now no more. Legions made up of the peace-softened towns- 
men of Diocletian's time, even if they had existed, would have 
given way before the German fighting groups, as chaff is driven 
before the wind. Hopeless of being able to drive the Germans 
back, the emperors had allowed them to settle within the fron- 
tiers (§ 1073). Even Augustus had permitted this. Indeed, the 
lack of men for the army had long since led the emperors to 
hire the Germans as soldiers, and Julius Caesar's cavalry had 
been largely barbarian. A more serious step was the admission 
of entire German peoples to live in the Empire in their accus- 
tomed manner. The men were then received into the Roman 
army, but they remained under their own German leaders 



The Triumph of the Barbafians 691 

and they fought in their old village units. For it was only 
as the Roman army was made up of the German fighting 
units that it had any effectiveness. Barbarian life, customs, 
and manners were thus introduced into the Empire, and the 
Roman army as a whole was barbarian. At the same time 
the German leaders of such troops were recognized as 
Roman officers. 

Along the lower Rhine there lived under a king a powerful 1122. The 
group of German peoples, called the Franks. The Vandals, ^an^p^t^' 
also in the North, had long borne an evil reputation for their P'^^; Julian's 

^ ^ defeat of 

destructive raids. South of them, the Alemanni had frequently Franks and 
moved over the frontiers, and on the lower Danube the Goths stSssWg^ 
were a constant danger. Constantine's nephew Julian (§ 11 16) ^357 a.d.) 
had gained a fierce battle against the Germans at Strassburg 
(357 A.D.), and had thus stopped the Franks and Alemanni at 
the Rhine. He established his headquarters at Paris, where 
he still continued to read his beloved books in the midst of the 
campaign. The philosopher emperor's stay at Paris fifteen and 
a half centuries ago, for the first time brought clearly into 
history that important city of future Europe. 

This constant commingling of the German peoples with the 1123. Ger- 
civilized communities of the Empire was gradually softening gain some ^^ 
their Northern wildness and giving them not only familiarity JiJcludlnff"' 
with civilization but also a respect for it. Their leaders, who writing and 

^ , Christianity 

held office under the Roman government, came to have friends 
among highborn Romans. Such leaders sometimes married 
educated Roman women of rank, even close relations of the 
emperors. Some of them too were converted to Christianity. 
An educated German of the Goths, a man named Ulfilas, 
translated the New Testament into Gothic, a dialect akin to 
German. As the Germanic peoples possessed no writing, he was 
obliged to devise an alphabet from Greek and Latin for writing 
Gothic. He thus produced the earliest surviving example of a 
written Germanic tongue and aided in converting the Northern 
peoples to Christianity. 



692 



Ancient Times 



At this juncture barbarians of another race, having no Indo- 
European blood in their veins, had been penetrating Europe 
from Asia. These people were the Huns. They were the most 
destructive of all the barbarian invaders. They pushed down 
upon the lower Danube, and the West Goths (often called 
Visigoths), fleeing before them, begged the Romans for per- 
mission to cross the Danube and settle in the Empire. Valens, 
who had followed Julian as emperor of the East, gave them 
permission to do so. Thereupon friction between them and the 
Roman officials caused them to revolt. In the battle which 
ensued at Adrianople (378 a.d.), although the Goths could not 
have had an army of over fifteen thousand men, the Romans, 
or rather the Germans fighting for them, were defeated, and 
the emperor Valens himself was killed. Henceforth the helpless- 
ness of the Roman Empire was evident to all the world. This 
movement of the West Goths and the battle of Adrianople were 
the beginning of a century of continuous migration in which the 
Western Empire was slowly absorbed by the barbarians and 
broken up into German kingdoms under German military leaders. 

Theodosius, who succeeded Valens at Constantinople, was 
the last of the great emperors to unite and rule the whole 
Roman Empire. He came to an understanding with the West 
Goths, allowing them to settle where they were, taking them 
into his army, and giving their leaders important posts in the 
government. But it was only by using the able and energetic 
Germans themselves as his ministers and commanders that he 
was able to maintain his empire. He even gave his niece in 
marriage to his leading military commander, a Vandal named 
Stilicho, and at his death, in 395 a.d., Theodosius intrusted to 
this able German the care of his two young sons Honorius 
and Arcadius. 

Theodosius divided the Empire between these two youths, 
giving to Arcadius the East and to Honorius the West. The 
Empire was never to be united again. Indeed, after the 
appearance of these two young emperors, the dismemberment 







j:XRLAliATIONi. 

LIMITS OF ATTILA»J 
EMPIRE ABOUT 450 



■.!?^*' 



^ 



VANDALS 
WEST GOTHS 
EAST GOTHS 
FRANKS 
" SAXONS AND'^NG-UES 



G 




The Triiimph of the Barbarians 693 

of the Western Empire went rapidly forward, and in two 
generations resulted in the disappearance of both the Western 
emperor and his empire (see map, p. 676). 

From both the Danube and the Rhine the movement of the 1127. West 
barbarians southward and westward went on. Led by their creece^^d^ 
kins: Alaric, the West doths first pushed down from the ^^aly (400 

^ ^ A.D.), take 

Danube into the Balkan Peninsula and advanced plundering Rome (410 
into Greece, where they even took Athens. Here the German estab)iisha 
Stilicho, leading German troops, confronted the German inva- in^caur 
sion and forced it back. Driving their wagons piled high with 
the plunder of Greece, Alaric led his West Goths into Illyricum, 
where Arcadius made him official commander. When the faith- 
ful Stilicho had been executed on a charge of treason by Hono- 
rius, there was no one to oppose Alaric in his invasion of Italy. 
In 410 A.D. the emperor of the West was thus obliged to look 
on helplessly while the Gothic host captured and plundered 
Rome itself.-^ Indeed, when the West Goths, after the death of 
Alaric, retired from Italy into southwestern Gaul, and later into 
Spain, Honorius was obliged to recognize the West Gothic 
kingdom which they set up there (see map, p. 692). 

While these movements of the West Goths were going on 1128. Estab- 
after 400 a.d., the Vandals and two other German peoples vandaf 
had crossed the Rhine, and, advancing through Gaul, they had kingdoms 
penetrated into Spain, where these three peoples set up three and Africa ; 
German kingdoms. These kingdoms, like that of the West in Gaul (400- 
Goths in Gaul, acknowledged that they were vassals of Hono- 45° a.d.) 
rius as emperor of the West. Not long after their settlement 
in Spain, the Vandals sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar and 
seized the Roman province of Africa (429 a.d.). The African 
kingdom of the Vandals was likewise recognized by the West- 
em emperor. A little later the German Burgundians had 
pushed in beside the West Goths and set up a kingdom in 
southeastern Gaul. 

1 Not long after 400 B. c. Rome was captured by the Gauls (§815), and a few 
years after 400 A. D. it was captured by the Goths. 



694 



Ancient Times 



1 129. West- 
ern Empire 
loses Britain 
and dwindles 
to Italy 



I 130. Italy 
and the West 
invaded by 
the Huns 

(450-453 
A.D.) ; Rome 
taken by 
the Vandals 
(455 A.D.) 



Meantime German peoples located along the North Sea had 
taken to the water and were landing in the Island of Britain. 
While Alaric was sacking Rome, the last Roman soldiers were 
being withdrawn from the island, and within a generation after- 
ward the German tribes of the Angles and Saxons were setting 
up kingdoms there, which did not acknowledge the sovereignty 
of Rome. A rival emperor in Gaul was obliged to let the 
island go, nor could the feeble emperor of the West, in Italy, 
ever recover it. He was equally helpless as far as any real 
power over the western German kingdoms was concerned. 
Within a generation after 400 a. d. the Western Empire had 
therefore dwindled to Italy itself, and even there the emperor 
of the West was entirely in the hands of his German officials 
and commanders. 

In this condition of weakness Italy was subjected to two 
more serious invasions. The Eastern Empire had not been able 
to control the Huns who had forced the West Goths across the 
Danube (§ 1124). For two generations since then the kingdom 
of the Huns had steadily grown in power, until their king 
Attila governed an empire extending from southern Russia to 
the Rhine. He laid the Eastern Empire under tribute, and by 
450 A.D. he and his terrible barbarian host were sweeping 
down upon Italy in the most destructive invasion which the 
South ever suffered. The West Goths, with other western 
Germans, however, rallied to the assistance of the Western 
emperor against the common enemy, and in a terrible battle 
at Chalons, in France, Attila was defeated in 451 a.d. He 
retreated eastward, and two years later, as he was invading 
Italy, he died. The Hunnish empire fell to pieces, never to 
trouble Europe again. Hardly had Rome thus escaped when 
the Vandals crossed over from Carthage to Sicily and Italy, 
and in 455 a.d. they captured Rome. Although they carried 
off great quantities of spoil, they spared the magnificent build- 
ings of the city, as Alaric and his West Goths had also done 
forty-five years earlier (see map, p. 692). 



The Trhimph of the Barbarians 695 

In Italy, all that was left of the Western Empire, the German 1131. Last of 
rfi'ilitary leaders possessed all the power and made and unmade at R^oTe^'^°'^^ 
emperors as they pleased. But these seeming emperors of the Romulus 
West were now to disappear. By a remarkable coincidence the dispbceYby 
last to bear the title was called Romulus Augustulus ; that is, reSer^Odo- 
Romulus, " the little Augustus." He thus bore the names both acer(476A.D.) 
of the legendary founder of Rome itself and of the founder of 
the Roman Empire. He was quietly set aside by the German 
soldiery, who put Odoacer, one of their number, in his place. 
Thus in 476 a.d., two generations after Theodosius, the last of 
the Western emperors disappeared. The line of emperors at 
Rome thus ended a little over five hundred years after it had 
been established by Augustus. The German leaders in Italy 
sent word to the Eastern emperor at Constantinople that they 
acknowledged the sovereignty of the Eastern emperor, who 
then authorized Odoacer to rule with the title of " patrician." 

Meantime another great migration of the barbarians again 1132. Estab- 
altered the situation in the West. An eastern branch of the of an East 
Goths, whom we call, therefore, the East Goths (Ostro-Goths), J^^^!^ '[^"p 
had remained along the Danube for two generations after their byTheodoric 
kindred, the West Goths, had departed (§ 1 1 24). Then they also ^^^ 
shifted westward and southward into Italy, where, in 493 a.d., 
their king Theodoric the Great displaced Odoacer and made 
himself king of a strong East Gothic kingdom in Italy. Although 
he was unable even to read, Theodoric was a wise and highly 
civilized ruler, and under him Italy began to recover from her 
misfortunes. His power finally included, besides Italy and Sicily, 
part of Gaul and Spain, and it at one time seemed that the 
"Western Empire was about to be restored under a German 
emperor. This restoration of the West was prevented, however, 
by the rise of Justinian, the last great emperor of the East at 
Constantinople. 

After the death of Theodosius (395 a.d.) the Eastern Empire 1133. justin- 
had been ruled by weaklings. Justinian, however, who was reconquest 
crowned at Constantinople in 527 a.d., only a generation after of the West 



696 



Ancient Times 



the rise of Theodoric, was a gifted and energetic ruler. His 
dream was the restoration of the united Empire. Under his able 

general Belisarius, 
he therefore en- 
deavored to recon- 
quer the West. 
Belisarius overthrew 
the Vandal king- 
dom in the prov- 
ince of Africa and 
then passed over 
into Italy, where he 
finally crushed the 
kingdom of the East 
Goths. Although 
disturbed by a seri- 
ous revolt in Italy, 
the Eastern emper- 
or's authority was 
restored in Italy, 
Sicily, Africa, and 
southern Spain. But 
Justinian showed 
very poor judgment 
in supposing that 
the Eastern Empire 




Fig. 270. Hall of an Egyptian Temple 

ALTERED INTO A CHRISTIAN ChURCH 



Over fifteen hundred years ago, in the reign of 
Theodosius (379-395 A.D.), not many years be- 
fore 400 A.D., the temples of the old gods all 
around the Mediterranean were closed by edict 
of the emperor. They were then gradually 
forsaken, as we find them now, or the huts and 

sun-dried-brick hovels of the poor crowded into them. In some cases a 
temple hall, once devoted to the worship of the gods, was then con- 
verted into a Christian church. In such a hall of the Luxor Temple at 
Thebes in Egypt, the arched niche we see here was cut into the wall 
for the pulpit of the preacher, and Greek columns were set up to sup- 
port a canopy over his head. The pagan relief scenes on the walls were 
covered with plaster on which Christian saints were painted. This 
Christian plaster, visible just at the left of the left-hand column, has now 
largely fallen off and revealed the old pagan pictures, as we see them 
here still further to the left, where the pictures of the old Egyptian 
gods have emerged again, to find their former worshipers all vanished 



The Triumph of the Barbarians 697 

possessed the power again to rule the whole Mediterranean 
world. His destmction of the P2ast Gothic kingdom in Italy 
left the peninsula helpless before the next wave of barbaric 
migration, nor were his successors able to maintain his conquests. 

But if political unity failed, the emperor's large plans did 1134. Justin- 
succeed in establishing a great judicial or legal unity. He em- compHed^ 
ployed a veiy able lawyer named Tribonian to gather together 
all the numerous laws which had grown up in the career of 
Rome since the age of the Twelve Tablets (§ 802) a thousand 
years before. Justinian was the Hammurapi of the Roman 
Empire, and the vast body of laws which he collected repre- 
sented the administrative experience of the most successful 
rulers of the ancient world. Almost every situation and every 
difficulty arising in social life, in business transactions, or in 
legal proceedings had been met and settled by Roman judges. 
The collection of their decisions arranged by Justinian in brief 
form was called a digest. Justinian's Digest became the foun- 
dation of law for later ages, and still remains so to a large 
extent in the government of the civilized peoples of to-day. 

Under Justinian Constantinople enjoyed wide recognition and 1135. End 
the emperor gave lavishly for its beautification. But it was no tempos 
longer for building the old temples of the gods or basilicas and 
amphitheaters that the ruler gave his wealth. The old world of 
Greek civilization had received its last support from Julian, two 
centuries earlier (§ 11 16). Theodosius, the last emperor to rule 
the entire Empire, had forbidden the worship of the old gods 
and issued a decree closing all their temples. Since 400 a. d. 
the splendid temples of the gods, which fringed the Mediter- 
ranean (Fig. 219) and extended far up the Nile (Fig. 64), were 
left more and more forsaken by their worshipers, till finally they 
were deserted and desolate as they are to-day, or they were 
altered for use as Christian churches (Fig. 270). The last blow 
to what the Church regarded as Greek paganism was now 
struck by Justinian, who closed the schools of philosophy form- 
ing the university at Athens. The buildings to wMch the 



698 



Ancient Times 



1x36. Divi- 
sion of the 
Church into 
East and 
West 



emperor now devoted his wealth were churches. The vast 
church of Saint Sophia which he built at Constantinople still 
stands to-day, the most magnificent of the early churches of 
the East (headpiece, p. 688). 

Just as this building shows its oriental origin in its architec- 
ture, so did the teachings of the Church in the Eastern Empire. 
The efforts of Justinian to unite East and West failed to a large 
extent because of the jealousy of the oriental churches and 
the power of the Western Church. A division was therefore 
steadily developing between the Eastern (Greek) Church and 
the Western (Latin) Church. For while the dismemberment of 
the Western Empire, which we have followed, was still going 
on, there was arising at Rome an emperor of the Church, who 
was in no small degree the heir to the lost power of the West- 
ern emperor. As there had been an Empire of the East and 
an Empire of the West, so there were to be also a Church of 
the East and a Church of the West. To the Western Church 
we must now turn. 



Section 100. The Triumph of the Roman Church 
AND ITS Power over the Western Nations 



1137. Unique 
position of 
Rome, and 
the bishop 
of Rome 



The venerable city of Rome, with its long centuries as mis- 
tress of the world behind it, had gained a position of unique 
respect and veneration, even among the barbarians. The Goths 
and the Vandals had stood in awe and reverence under the 
shadow of its magnificent public buildings. They had left them 
uninjured, and in all its monumental splendor, Rome was still 
the greatest city of the world, rivaled only by Constantinople 
and Alexandria, the two other imperial cities. It was natural 
that the bishop of Rome should occupy a position of unusual 
power and respect. When the West Goths were threatening 
the city, and also in other important crises caused by the in- 
coming of the barbarians, the bishop of Rome had more than 
once showed an ability which made him the leading .statesmaa 



The Triumph of the Barbarians 699 

of Italy, if not of the West. There is no doubt that his influence 
had much to do with the respect which the West Goths and the 
Vandals had shown toward the city in sparing its buildings. 

At the same time the Church throughout the West had early 1138. Early 
produced able men. This was especially true in Africa, the enda° men"" 
province behind Carthage, where the leading early Christian ^"*^ph^^"u. 
writers had appeared. The bishop of Carthage was soon a Augustine 
serious rival of the bishop of Rome, and their rivalry in Chris- 430 a. d.) 
tian times curiously reminds us of the long past struggle between 
the two cities. Here in Africa in the days of Theodosius, 
Augustine, the greatest of the thinkers of the early Church, 
had arisen. Not at first a Christian, the young Augustine had 
been devoted to Greek philosophy and learning. At the same 
time he gave way to evil habits and uncontrolled self-indulgence. 
As he gained a vision of spiritual self-denial, his faithful Chris- 
tian mother, Monica, followed him through all the tremendous 
struggle and distress of mind, from which he emerged at last 
into a triumphant conquest of his lower nature, and the devo- 
tion of his whole soul to Christianity. In a volume of " Confes- 
sions " he told the story, which soon became the never-failing 
guide of the tempted in the Christian Church. Along with the 
Meditatiotis of Marcus Aurelius, it belongs among the most 
precious revelations of the inner life of a great man which we 
have inherited. 

In the days after Alaric had plundered Rome, and earthly 1139. Augus- 
government seemed to totter, Augustine also wrote a great o?God,"and 
treatise which he called ''The City of God," meaning the g^^^P^jf^^^^"^ 
government of God. Opposed to the governments of this State over 

in 1 . 1 1 • T • • -ui 1 • J the beliefs 

world and superior to them, he pictured an invisible kingdom of men 
of God, to which all Christian believers belonged. But this in- 
visible kingdom was after all hardly distinguished by Augustine 
from the visible organized Church with its bishops' and priests. 
To the authority of this eternal kingdom — that is, to the authority 
of the Church — all believers were urged by Augustine to submit 
without reservation. In the teaching of Augustine, therefore, the 



700 



Ancient Times 



1 140. Grow- 
ing power of 
Church of 
Rome 



1141. Rise of 
missionary 
monks and 
spread of 
regard for 
the Roman 
Church in 
the North 



Church gained complete control over the beliefs of men. This 
was at the very same time when the Edict of Theodosius was 
closing the temples of the old gods. The State was thus assum- 
ing the power to suppress all other beliefs, and henceforth it 
maintained its power over both the bodies and the minds of 
its subjects. In accordance with this idea Justinian had closed 
the university at Athens in order to stop freedom of thought 
and the teaching of the old philosophy (§ 1135). To the author- 
ity of the State over the beliefs of its people, Augustine added 
the authority of the Church. Thus ended all intellectual liberty 
in the ancient world. 

Augustine, moreover, recognized the leadership of the Church 
at Rome, and thus added his influence to a tendency already 
long felt by all (§ 1 137). For it was widely believed that Christ had 
conferred great power in the Church upon the Apostle Peter. 
Although it was known that Paul had also worked in Rome, 
early tradition told how Peter had founded the Church at Rome 
and become bishop there. It was also widely held that Peter 
had transferred his authority to his successors as bishops at 
Rome. Tradition thus aided in establishing the supremacy of 
the bishop of Rome. 

As increasing numbers of men withdrew from worldly occu- 
pations and gathered in communities, called monasteries, to lead 
holy lives or to help carry the Christian faith to the Northern 
barbarians, these beliefs regarding the Church of Rome went 
with them. Such monks, as they were called, taught the bar- 
barians that the Church also had power over the life here- 
after. Dreading frightful punishments beyond the grave, the 
superstitious peoples of the North submitted readily to such 
influences, and the Church gained enormous power over the 
barbarians. It was a power wielded more and more exclusively 
by the bishop of Rome. 

When the power of the Roman Empire was no longer able 
to restrain the barbarians, the influence of the Church held them 
in check. The Church gradually softened and modified the fierce 




EUROPE ^ 



in the time of j. 

^ CHARLEMAGIN^E ^^"^ 

A. D. 814 / ^ 

Original Possessions 
1 i Conquest by Charlemagne 

100 200 300 lOO 



Scale otMiles 



Longitude East 2( 



30 


40 60 60 60 




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\X--'^'^r\ \ \ 








^o-goi''^ ^^\"^^ ^'"'''■^-xV^ \ 


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« v.^ 






50 


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) ^ 








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^ 




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« 




P ricoiiium° .^--0 VJ1\ *^^"'''^/ ^ 




30 


^^^=:^ 






-1 iv 


^ 








) F 


— — -Tr\ Ji \ 


BUFTALi). 




)m Greenwich 


30 40 








over 
the barbarians 



The Triumph of the Barbarians 701 

instincts of barbarian kings ruling over barbarian peoples. The 1142. Value 
barrier of Roman organization and of Roman legions which ence of"the' 
had protected Mediterranean civilization had given way, but ^^^^^■^ 
the Church, taking its place, made possible the transference of 
power from the Roman Empire to the barbarians in the West, 
without the complete destruction of our heritage of civilization 

queathed us by Greece and Rome. 

Less than a generation after the death of Justinian, a gifted 1143. Greg- 
bishop of Rome named Gregory, commonly called Gregory the bShop o/^^ ' 
Great, showed himself a statesman of such wisdom and ability ^q^^^\°~ 
that he firmly established the leadership of the Roman Church. 
Italy, left defenseless by Justinian's destruction of the East 
Gothic kingdom (§ 1133), was thereupon invaded by the Lom- 
bards C' Longbeards "), the least civilized of all the German 
barbarians, who easily took possession of the Po valley. The 
Lombards were divided into small and rather weak communities. 
Thus the fallen Western Empire was not followed by a powerful 
and enduring nation in Italy, and this gave to the bishops of 
Rome the opportunity so well used by Gregory, to make them- 
selves the leaders of Italy. It was this great Church ruler who 
also sent missionary monks to Britain, and thus established 
Christianity in England two centuries after the Roman legions 
had left it. 

The influence of the Roman Church was likewise extended 1144. Rise of 
among the powerful Franks (§ 1 122), a group of German tribes ^nd the 
on the lower Rhine. Their king, Clovis, accepted Christianity ^^e See''" 
not long before 500 a.d. He succeeded in welding together 
the Frankish tribes, and the kingdom he left had been stead- - 
ily growing for over a century before Gregory's time. After 
Gregory's death this Frankish kingdom included a large part 
of western Europe, embracing, besides western Germany, the 
countries which we now call Holland, Belgium, and France. By 
the middle of the sixth century the Frankish kings had fallen 
under the influence of a family of their own powerful house- 
hold stewards called "Mayors of the Palace," who at last 



702 ' Ancient Times 

really held the ruling power, though in the name of the king. 
After 700 A.D. the Mayor of the Palace, who actually governed 
the great Frankish kingdom, was Charles Martel. He saved Eu- 
rope from being overrun by the Moslems (732 a.d.) (see § 1 154), 
and his descendants became the greatest kings of the Franks. 

1145. Alii- By combining with the bishop of Rome, whom we may now 
ChTrlemagne ^"^ ^he Pope, the new Frankish kings gained the dominion of 
and the Pope; western Europe. They assisted the Pope by subduing the 
magne'scoro- unruly Lombards in Italy and conquered a large part of 
Pope (800 modern Germany, besides northern Spain. Charlemagne, the 
A.D.) grandson of Charles Martel, ruled an empire consisting of 

western Germany, France, Italy, and northern Spain. He was 
the most powerful European sovereign of his time, and in 
800 A.D. he was crowned by the Pope at Rome as Roman 
emperor, theoretically supposed to succeed the line of emperors 
headed by Augustus. The emperor Charlemagne was an en- 
lightened ruler who desired to do all that he could for the 
education and well-being of his people. The civilization which 
he tried to spread, although it was very limited, was what was 
left of old Roman life and organization, which had been pre- 
served largely through the influence of the Church. 

1146. Church The Church had been founded in the beginning chiefly 
culture ;^pr2- among the lowly and the ignorant (§ 1069). It had originally 
ervation of been without hio^her Greek civilization, learnino^, and art. Grad- 

Latm htera- ° ' fc>' 

ture by the ually it gained also these things, as men like Augustine arose. 

Church 

It is chiefly to the libraries of the monks in the monasteries, 

and to their practice of copying ancient literary works, that we 

owe the preservation of such Latin literature as has survived. 

To-day our oldest and most important copies of such things as 

Virgil's ^neid (§ 1004) are manuscripts written on parchment, 

preserved in the libraries of the Christian monks. 

1147. The Art was slow to rise among early Christians, and for a 

church and thousand years or more there were no Christian painters or 

ancestor^' sculptors to be compared with those of Greece. On the other 

hand, the need for places of assembly led to the rise of great 







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The Triumph of the Barbarians 705 

architects among the early Christians. Influenced chiefly by 
the old business basilica, they devised noble and impressive 
assembly rooms for the early congregations in the days of 
Constantine. We still call such a church a basilica, to indicate 
its form. In the basilica churches we find the outcome of that 
long architectural development of thirty-five hundred years, 
from the earliest known clerestoiy at the Pyramids of (xizeh 
to the Christian cathedral (Fig. 271). 

The church tower also, at first not a part of the church 1148. The 
building, was a descendant of the old Babylonian temple tower and its orrery 
(Fig. 272). Thus the faith of Jesus, an oriental teacher, was tal ancestor 
sheltered in beautiful buildings which likewise showed their 
oriental ancestry. These Christian buildings, the church and 
its tower, like the faith they sheltered, are a striking example 
of how the world of later Europe reached back into that early 
Orient with which we began the story of civilization, when 
Europe was still in the Stone Age. And that ancient Orient, 
whose civilization thus survived in the life of Europe, was yet 
to rise once more, to dominate the Mediterranean as it had 
so often done before. To this final revival of the Orient we 
must now turn. 



Section ioi. The Final Revival of the Orient 

AND THE F^'oRERUNNERS OF THE NATIONS OF MODERN 

Europe 
Justinian, whose reign covered the middle years of the sixth 1149. The 

•^ 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 decline of the 

century a.d., was, as we have already said, the last great ruler Eastern Em- 
of the Eastern Empire. His endeavors to reunite the Empire Ju^tinjan^ 
and to adorn his capital both proved very disastrous. He spent 
the strength of his Empire in trying to regain the West, when 
he needed all his resources to defend himself against the New 
Persians, who assailed the eastern frontier in war after war. 
His great buildings, especially the magnificent church of Saint 
Sophia (headpiece, p. 688), required so much money that his 



7o6 



Ancient Times 



1 150. Inva- 
sion of the 
Slavs ; East- 
ern Empire 
no longer 
Roman 



1 151. Mo- 
hammed 
(570-632 
A.D.) and 
the founding 
of Islam 



treasury was emptied and the government was bankrupt. From 
the mistakes of Justinian the Eastern Empire never recovered, 
and at his death it entered upon an age of steady decline. 

Meantime a new invasion of barbarians was bringing in the 
Slavs, a non-German group of Indo-European peoples. They 
poured into the Balkan Peninsula to the gates of Constantinople 
and even down into Greece. They were soon holding the terri- 
tory in these regions which they still occupy. Under these cir- 
cumstances the Eastern Empire at Constantinople, although it 
was without interruption the direct descendant of the Roman 
Empire, was no longer Roman, any more than was the Empire 
of Charlemagne in the West. The Eastern Empire became 
what it was in .population and civilization, a mixed Greek-Slavic- 
Oriental State. 

Moreover, a vast section of the Eastern emperor's dominions 
lay in the Orient. Of these eastern dominions a large part was 
now about to be invaded and seized by a great Semitic migra- 
tion like those which we have repeatedly seen as the nomads of 
the Arabian desert were led by Sargon or the rulers of Ham- 
murapi's line into Babylonia ; or as the Hebrews swept in from 
the desert and seized the towns of Palestine (§§ 135, 166, 175, 
293). The last and the greatest movement of the Semitic bar- 
barians was now about to take place. Not long after the death 
of Justinian, there was born in Mecca (Fig. 273) in Arabia a 
remarkably gifted lad named Mohammed. As he grew up he 
believed, like so many Semitic teachers, that a commanding 
voice spoke within him as he wandered in the wilderness. This 
voice within him brought him messages which he felt compelled 
to communicate to his people as teachings from God, whom he 
called Allah. After much persecution and great danger to his 
life, he gathered a group of faithful followers about him, and 
when he died, in 632 a. d., he had established a new religion 
among the Arabs, which he had called Islam, meaning "recon- 
ciliation"; that" is, reconciliation to Allah, the sole God. The 
new believers he had called Muslims, or, as we spell it, 



The Triumph of the Barbarians 



707 



Moslems, meaning "the reconciled." By us they are often 
called Mohammedans, after their prophet. After Mohammed's 
death the Moslem leaders gathered together his teachings, till 




Fig. 273. A Bird's-eye View of Mecca and its Mosque 

Mecca is one of the few towns in the barren Arabian peninsula ; for by 
far the great majority of the Arabs hve as roving shepherds (§ 134) 
and not in towns. Mecca had been a sacred place long before the time 
of Mohammed, and the people had been accustomed to come there as 
pilgrims, to do homage to a sacred black stone called the Kaaba. 
Mohammed did not interfere with these customs. After his death the 
Moslems built a large court modeled on a colonnaded Greek market 
place (Fig. 212, M), around the Kaaba. Such a structure was the sim- 
plest form of a mosque. Over the Kaaba they erected a square shelter, 
which we see in the middle of the mosque court. To this place the 
Moslem believers still come in great numbers as pilgrims every year. 
Our sketch shows an exaggerated representation of the procession of 
pilgrims. In his later years Mohammed lived at Medina, over 200 miles 
north of Mecca, and the pilgrims also visit his tomb there 



then uncollected, and copied them to form a book called the 
Koran (Fig. 274), now the Bible of the Moslems. 

The Moslem leaders who inherited Mohammed's power were 1152. Rise of 
called caliphs, a word meaning " substitute." As rulers, they Empire^o? 
proved to be men of the greatest ability. They organized the ^^^ Moslems 
untamed desert nomads, who now added a. burning religious 



7o8 



Ancient Times 



1153. The 

nomad Arabs 
learn city civi- 
lization along 
the Fertile 
Crescent 



zeal to the wild courage of barbarian Arabs. This combination 
made the Arab armies of the caliphs irresistible. Within a few 
years after Mohammed's death they took Egypt and Syria from 

the feeble successors of 
Justinian at Constanti- 
nople. They thus reduced 
the Eastern Empire to 
little more than the Bal- 
kan Peninsula and Asia 
Minor. At the same 
time the Arabs crushed 
the empire of the New 
Persians and brought the 
Sassanian line of kings 
to an end (640 a.d.), 
after it had lasted a little 
over four hundred years. 
Thus the Moslems built 
up a great oriental em- 
pire, with its center at 
the east end of the 
Fertile Crescent. 

Just as the people of 
Sargon and Hammurapi 
took over the city 
civilization which they 




Fig. 274. A Page of a Manuscript 

Copy of the Koran, the Bible of 

THE Moslems 



found alone: the lower 



This writing has descended from the an- 
cient alphabet of the Phoenicians (Fig. 
160), and, like the Phoenician writing, it 
is still written and read from right to left. The Arab writers love to 
give it decorative flourishes, producing a handsome page. The rich, 
decorative border is a good example of Moslem art. The whole page 
was done by hand. In such hand-written books as these the educated 
Moslems wrote out translations of the books of the great Greek phi- 
losophers and scientists, like Aristotle ; for example, one of the most 
valuable of ithe books ^of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer (§ 1059), we 
now possess only in an Arabic translation. At the same time the 
Moslems wrote their own treatises on algebra, astronomy, grammar, 
and other sciences (§ 11 55) insimilarbooksto which the West owes much 




709 



7IO 



Ancient Times 



Euphrates (§ 167), so now in the same region the Moslem Arabs 
of the desert took over the city civilization of the New Persians. 

With the ruins of Babylon look- 
ing down upon them, the Mos- 
lems built their splendid capital 
at Bagdad beside the New Per- 
sian royal residence of Ctesiphon 
(headpiece, p. 667). They built 
of course under the influence of 
the ancient structures of Egypt, 
Babylon, Persia, and Assyria. 
The Babylonian temple towers 
or Christian-church towers of 
similar character showed them 
the first models of the minarets 
(Fig. 272, 2) with which they 
adorned their mosques, as the 
Moslem houses of prayer are 
called. Here, as Sargon's people 
and as the Persians had so long 
before done, the once wander- 
ing Arabs learned to read and 
write, and could thus put the 
Koran into writing. Here too 
they learned the business of 

government and became experi- 
FiG. 275. Moorish Mosque , , ^. , • i ,, 

T- \ a/tt ,„^^ x.Tc^.rxr enced rulers, thus beside the 

Tower, or Minaret, in Spain 

, ., , , ^ shapeless mounds of the older 

It was built, not long before ^ 

1200 A.D., out of the ruins of 

Roman and West Gothic buildings found here by the Moors, and 

blocks bearing Latin inscriptions are to be seen in a number of places 

in its walls. The Moors erected it as the minaret of their finest mosque 

at Seville, Spain. After extensive alterations at the top by Christian 

architects, it was converted into the bell tower of a Christian church. 

While the Christian-church towers in the Orient strongly influenced 

the Moslem minarets, we see how the reverse was the case in some 

buildings of the West where Moslem minarets became church spires 




The Triumph of the Barbarians 711 

capitals, Akkad, Babylon, and Ctesiphon, the power and civili- 
zation of the Orient rose into new life again for the last time. 

Bagdad became the finest city of the East and one of the 1154. Ca- 
most splendid in the world. The caliphs extended their power dad'and^hf 
eastward to the frontiers of India. Westward the Moslems Moslem 

advance to 

pushed along the African coast of the Mediterranean, as their the West; 
Phoenician kindred had done before them (§ 397). It was the of Tours^ 
Moslem overthrow of Carthage and its bishop, which now (732 a.d.) 
relieved the bishop of Rome (the Pope) of his only dangerous 
rival in the West. Only two generations after the death of 
Mohammed the Arabs crossed over from Africa into Spain 
(711 A.D.), As they moved on into France they threatened to 
girdle the entire Mediterranean. At the battle of Tours 
(732 A.D.), however, just a hundred years after the death of 
Mohammed, the Moslems were unable to crush the Frankish 
army under Charles Martel (§ 11 44). They withdrew perma- 
nently from France into Spain, where they established a west- 
ern Moslem kingdom, which we call Moorish. The magnificent 
buildings which it left behind are the most splendid in Spain 
to-day (Fig. 275). 

The Moorish kingdom developed a civilization far higher 1155. Lead- 
than that of the Franks, and indeed the highest in Europe of Moslem 
that age. Thus while Europe was sinking into the ignorance civilization 
of the Middle Ages, the Moslems were the leading students 
of science, astronomy, mathematics, and grammar. There was 
soon much greater knowledge of these matters among the 
Moslems than in Christian Europe. Such Arabic words as 
algebra and our numerals, which we received from the Arabs, 
suggest to us how much we owe to them. 

As we look out over this final world situation, we see lying 1156. Emer- 
in the middle the remnant of the Roman Empire ruled by foTerunners^ 
Constantinople, and holding little more than the Balkan Penin- ^f mJdem""' 
sula and Asia Minor; while on one side was the lost West, Europe 
made up of the German kingdoms of the former Northern 
barbarians ; and on the other side was the lost East, now part 



712 Ancient Times 

of the great oriental empire of the caliphs of Bagdad. Looking 
at Europe without the East, we discover that there was at its 
western end a Moslem oriental kingdom (the Moors), while at its 
eastern end there was a Christian oriental state (Constantinople). 
Between these lay chiefly the German Empire of Charlemagne, 
with vast masses of Slavs on the east of it, and detached 
German peoples in the outlying island of Britain. Out of 
these fragments of the Roman Empire and the newly formed 
nations of the North, the nations of modern Europe came forth. 
In France, and the two southern peninsulas of Spain and Italy, 
Latin speech survived among the people, to become French, 
Spanish, and Italian. While in the island of Britain the German 
language spoken by the invading Angles and Saxons (§ 1129), 
mingled with much Latin and French to form our own English 
speech, written with Roman letters inherited from Greece, 
Phoenicia, and Egypt (Fig. 160). 
1157. Sur- Thus Rome left her stamp on the peoples of Europe, still 

fluences"of evident, not only in the languages they use, but also in many 
u"^E^" other important matters of life, and especially in law and 

government. In Roman law, still a power in modern govern- 
ment, we have the great creation of Roman genius, which has 
more profoundly affected the later world than any other Roman 
institution. Another great achievement of Rome was the uni- 
versal spread of that international civilization brought forth by 
Greece under contact with the Orient. Rome gave to that civ- 
ilization the far-reaching organization which under the Greeks it 
had lacked. That organization, though completely transformed 
into oriental despotism, endured for five centuries and long 
withstood the barbarian invasions from the North, which would 
otherwise have overwhelmed the disorganized Greek world 
long before. The Roman State was the last bulwark of civiliza- 
tion intrenched on the Mediterranean against the Indo-European 
barbarians. But the bulwark, though shaken, did not fall be- 
cause of hostile assaults from without. It fell because of 
decay within. 



Tlie Triumph of the Barbarians 713 

Nor did it fall everywhere. For, as we have seen, a fragment 1158. Sur- 
of the vast Empire still survived in the East. The emperors fragment of 
ruling at Constantinople traced their predecessors back in an ^^^ Empire 

at Constanti- 

unbroken Ime to Augustus, and they ruled as his successors, nople, and 
Founded on the site of an ancient Greek city, lying in the midst 1453^.0.* 
of the Greek East, Constantinople had always been Greek in 
both language and civilization. But at the same time, as we 
have seen, it was largely oriental also. Notwithstanding this, it 
never wholly lost the tradition of old Greek culture. Learning, 
even though of a mechanical type, never died out there, as it 
did so completely in the West; nor did art ever fall so low. 
As Rome declined, Constantinople became the greatest and 
most splendid city of Europe, exciting the admiration and sur- 
prise of all visitors from the less civilized West. Thus the last 
surviving fragment of the Empire, which by right of succession 
might still continue to call itself Roman, lived on for a thou- 
sand years after the Germans had completely conquered the 
West. Nor did the Germans ever gain Constantinople, but in 
1453 this last remnant of the Roman Empire fell into the hands 
of the Turks, who have held it ever since. 



Section 102. Retrospect 

Besides the internal decay of Rome and the triumph of the 1159. From 
(Christian Church, the other great outstanding feature of the last hatchet to 
centuries of the Roman Empire was the incoming of the bar- ^h^ ^.^"[j?' 
barians, with the result that while Mediterranean civilization zationof 
steadily declined, it nevertheless slowly spread northward, espe- Europe in 
cially under the influence of the Church, till it transformed the ffSd years 
ruder life of the North. At this point then we have returned to* 
the region of western and northern Europe, where we first took 
up the career of man, and there, among the crumbling monu- 
ments of the Stone Age, Christian churches now began to rise. 
Books and civilized government, once found only along the 
Mediterranean, reached the northern shores of Europe, where 



714 Anciejtt Times 

grass and great forest trees were growing over the shell heaps 
of the Stone Age Norsemen (Fig. 13). What a vast sweep of 
the human career rises before our imagination as we picture the 
first church spires among the massive tombs of Stone Age man 
(Fig. 20)! 
1160. The We have watched the men of Europe struggling upward 

of"5vnLa?£n through thousands of years of Stone Age barbarism, while 
and barbarism toward the end of that struggle, civilization was arising in the 
Orient. Then on the borders of the Orient we saw the Stone 
Age Europeans of the ^gean receiving civilization from the 
Nile and thus developing a wonderful civilized world of their 
own. This remarkable ^gean civilization, the earliest in Europe, 
was overwhelmed and destroyed by the incoming of those 
Indo-European barbarians whom we call the Greeks (§ 380). 
Writing, art, architecture, and shipbuilding, which had arisen 
on the borders of southeastern Europe, passed away, and civili- 
zation in Europe perished at the hands of the Greek nomads 
from the Danube. Civilization would have been lost entirely, 
had not the Orient, where it was born, now preserved it. South- 
eastern Europe, controlled by the Greeks, was therefore able to 
make another start, and from the Orient it again received writ- 
ing, art, architecture, shipbuilding, and many other things 
which make up civilization. After having thus halted civilization 
in Europe for over a thousand years, the Greeks left behind 
their early barbarism (cf. Fig. 155), and, developing a noble and 
beautiful culture of their own, they carried civilization to the 
highest level it ever attained. Then, as the Indo-European bar- 
barians from the North again descended to the Mediterranean 
(Section 99), Roman organization prevented civilization from 
■ being destroyed for the second time. Thus enough of the 
civilization which the Orient and the Greeks had built up 
was preserved, so that after long delay it rose again in 
Europe to become what we find it to-day. Such has been 
the long struggle of civilization and barbarism which we have 
been following. 



The Tritimph of the Barbarians 715 

To-day, marking the various stages of that long career, the 1161. The 
stone fist-hatchets lie deep in the river gravels of France ; the ^fhrv^j'fol- 
furniture of the pile-villages sleeps at the bottom of the Swiss '^^^^ ^^ '■^- 

. . cover ancient 

lakes ; the majestic pyramids and temples announcing the dawn history 
of civilization rise along the Nile ; the silent and deserted city- 
mounds by the Tigris and Euphrates shelter their myriads of 
clay tablets ; the palaces of Crete look out toward the sea they 
once ruled; the noble temples and sculptures of Greece still 
proclaim the new world of beauty and freedom first revealed 
by the Greeks ; the splendid Roman roads and aqueducts 
assert the supremacy and organized control of Rome; and 
the Christian churches proclaim the new ideal of human 
brotherhood. These things still reveal the fascinating trail 
along which our ancestors came, and in following that trail 
we have recovered the earliest chapters in the wonderful 
human story which we call Ancient History. 



QUESTIONS 

Section 99. Describe the German peoples at home ; in migra- 
tion and war. Describe the incoming of the West Goths and the 
results. What chief movements of the barbarians took place after 
the death of Theodosius.? What was the effect upon the Western 
Empire? Describe the two great barbarian invasions of Italy in the 
middle of the fifth century a.d. and the end of the line of emperors 
at Rome. Describe Justinian's Digest, What had happened to the 
old religions.^ What did Justinian do about Greek philosophy? 
Describe the division of the Church. 

Section 100. Tell about Augustine and his writings. Describe 
the growing power of the Church at Rome. Sketch the story of the 
Franks and their alliance with the bishop of Rome. What elements 
of culture had the church now gained ? What forms did early church 
architecture have, and whence did they come ? 

Section ioi. Tell the story of Mohammed. What did his suc- 
cessors accomplish in civilization ? in conquest ? Describe briefly the 
world situation which resulted. How long did the Roman Empire 
last ? V/hat influences did it leave behind ? 



yi6 



Ancient Times 



Section 102. Where did mankind fy-st gain civilization? Where 
did civilization first arise in Europe? What happened when the 
Greeks came in? Where was civilization then preserved? Who 
carried it to its highest level ? By whom was it almost destroyed for 
the second time ? What organization saved it for the second time ? 

Note. The scene below shows us the condition of Europe at least fifty 
thousand years ago, in the Early Stone Age (§§6-12), when man began the 
long upward climb which carried him through all the ages of developing and 
declining civilization which we have been following. 










BIBLIOGRAPHY 

It is not the aim of this bibUography to mention all of even the im- 
portant books in various languages that relate to the periods in ques- 
tion. The writer is well aware that teachers are busy people, and that 
high-school libraries and local public libraries usually furnish at best 
only a few historical works. It is therefore most important that those 
books should be given prominence in this list which the teacher has 
some chance of procuring and finding the time to use. It not infre- 
quently happens that the best account of a particular period or topic is 
in a foreign language or in a rare publication, such as a doctor's dis- 
sertation, which could only be found in one of our largest libraries. All 
such titles, however valuable, are omitted from this list. They can be 
found mentioned in all the more scholarly works in the various fields. 

A small high-school library on the ancient world, of moderate cost, 
including a standard book or two on each main period or topic, has been 
indicated in the following list by a dagger (t) before each title. From 
these a selection can be made. The price will average not more than $1.50 
per volume. Preference is sometimes indicated by double dagger (ft). 
All books with a star (*) are suited chiefly for the teacher and are 
rather advanced for the high-school student. Where a book is referred 
. to often, the star or dagger usually appears only with the first mention. 

CHAPTER I 

*SoLLAS, Ancient Htinters. \T\'LO'ii, Primitive Culture. fHoERNES, 
Primitive Man. fMvRES, The Dawn of History, chaps, i-ii, vii-xi. An 
excellent little book in which only the traditional Babylonian chronology 
needs revision. *SiR John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Prehistoric 
Times. *Osborn, Men of the Old Stone Age. A very valuable and 
sumptuously illustrated presentation of Early Stone Age life. 

CHAPTERS H AND HI 

Breasted, History of Egypt. IBreasted, History of the Aneient A. Histories 
Egyptians. *Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East, chaps, ii-iv, 
vi-viii. 



718 



Ancient Times 



B. Art and 
archaeology 



C. Mythology 
and religion 

D. Social life 

E. Excava- 
tion and 
discovery 



F. Original 
sources in 
English 

G. The mon- 
uments as 
they are to- 
day 



IMaspero, Art in Egypt. A useful little manual in Ars una — species 
inille. (Hachette & C'«, and Scribner's, New York.) *Maspero, Manual 
of Egyptian Archceology. (Last edition, 191 4. Putnam's.) tHEDWiG 
Fechheimer, Die Plastik der Aegypter (156 beautiful plates showing 
the finest examples of Egyptian sculpture. The best series to be had, 
and very low priced). 

*Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought in A^icient 
Egypt. 

tERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt. 

t Edwards, Pharaohs, Eellahs^atid Explorers. *Petrie, Ten Years^ 
Digging in Egypt. Weigall, Treasury of the AHle. Two quarterly 
journals begun in 1914, called Ancient Egypt (edited by Petrie ; ^2.00 a 
year; subscriptions taken by Dr. W. C. Winslow, 525 Beacon Street, 
Boston, Mass.) and fournal of Egyptiati Archceology (published by the 
Egypt Exploration Fund). Both report discoveries in Egypt as fast as 
made. 

*Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vols. I-V. fPETRlE, Egyptian 
Tales. tMASPERO, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt (translated from 
the French by Mrs. C. H. W. Johns). 

The Underwood & Underwood series of Egyptian views, edited by 
tBREASTED, Egypt through the Stereoscope : a fotirney through the Land 
of the Pharaohs (100 views with explanatory volume and set of maps). 
See remarks above, p. viii. f (Selected views, with explanations printed 
on the backs, may be secured at moderate cost. The most useful fifteen 
on Egypt are Nos. 17, 27, 29, 30, 31, 42, 48, 52, 57, 60, 62, 69, 82, 89, 97.) 



CHAPTER IV 



A. Histories *KiNG, History of Stuner and Akkad and ^History of Babylonia. 

tGooDSPEED, History of the Babyloniajts and Assyrians. Recent dis- 
coveries have greatly altered the chronology. fC. H. W. Johns, 
Ancient Babylonia {Csimhridge Manuals). *Hall, The Ancient History 
of the Near East, chaps, v, x, xii. *Olmstead, Sargon of Assyria, 
*RoGERS, A History of Babylonia and Assyria. 

B. Art and There is no handbook corresponding to Maspero's Art in Egypt. 
archaeology *Handcock, Mesopotamian Archceology. *Hall, The Ancient History 

of the Near East. *Jastrow, Civilization of the Babylonians and 
Assyrians. 

C. Mythology *Jastrow, Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and 
and religion Assyria. See also his Civilization. 

D. Social life tSAYCE, Babylonian and Assyrian Life and Customs. *Jastrow, 

Civilizatio7i. 



Bibliography 



719 



*ROGERS, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, Vol. T. There is no 
journal reporting discoveries in Babylonia and Assyria (like Ancient 
Egypt above), but see the new journal of the American Archaological 
Institute, called Art and Archeology {$z.oo a year; subscriptions taken 
by The Macmillan Company, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York), which 
reports discovery in the whole field of ancient man. 

*R. F. Harper (Ed.), Assyrian and Babylojiian Literature. tBoTS- 
FORD, A Source Book of Ancient History, chap. iii. *Sayce (Ed.), 
Records of the Past (First Series, 12 vols.; Second Series, 6 vols.). 
tC H. W. Johns, Oldest Code of Lazvs in the World {ha-ws of Hammurapi). 
*KlNG, Letters of Hammtirapi. 

The buildings surviving in Babylonia and Assyria are in a very ruin- 
ous state. Photographs are now available in the excellent series by 
Underwood & Underwood on Mesopotamia. 



E. Excava- 
tion and 
discovery 



P. Original 
sources in 
English 



G. The 

monuments 
as they are 
to-day 



CHAPTER V 

tGooDSPEED, History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. fC. H. W. A. Histories 
Johns, Ancient Assyria (Cambridge Manuals). *King, History of 
Babylonia. *Hall, Ancient History of the Near East. *Olmstead, 
Sargon of Assyria. *RoGERS, A History of Babylonia and Assyria. 

There is no handbook of Assyrian art. The Patterson-Kleinmann B. Art and 
series of photographs contains the most important Assyrian sculptures, archaeology 
See also *Jastrow, Civilization. 

On religion, social life, excavation and discovery, and original sources, 
see the books mentioned under Chapter IV, above. 



CHAPTER VI 

There is no good modern history of Persia in English based on the 
sources, but see especially : f Benjamin, Story of Persia (Story of the 
Nations Series). Meyer, " Persia," in Encyclopcedia Britannica. Raw- 
LINSON, Five Great Monarchies : Persia. *Hall, The Ancient History 
of the Near East, chap. xii. 

*Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art: Persia. Rawlinson, Mon- 
archies. 

Meyer, " Persia," in Encyclopcedia Britannica. Rawlinson, Mon- 
archies. 

*Jackson, Zoroaster. Rawlinson, Monarchies. 

t Jackson, Persia, Past and Present. This valuable book is the best 
introduction to the subject of Persia as a whole, and contains much 
information on all the above subjects. tMlCHAELls, A Century of 
Archceological Discovery, 



A. Histories 



B. Art and 
archaeology 

C. Mythology 
and religion 

D. Social life 

E. Explora- 
tion and 
discovery 



720 



Ancient Times 



p. Original 
sources in 
English 



tToLMAN, The Behistan Inscription of King Darius. The Persian 
monuments are not numerous, and this inscription of Behistun is the 
most important. A considerable part of it will be found quoted in 
BoTSFORD, A Source Book of Ancient History, pp. 57-59. The Avesta 
will be found in the series called Sacred Books of the East. 



A. Histories 



B. Mythology 
and religion 



C, Excava- 
tion and 
discovery 



D. Social life 

E. Original 
sources in 
English 



F. Palestine, 
its people and 
monuments 
as they are 
to-day 



CHAPTER VII 

*George Adam Smith, The Historical Geogj-aphy of the Holy Land. 
The most valuable of the many books on Palestine, but a little advanced 
for high-school pupils. *Henry Preserved Smith, Old Testament 
History. *Cornill, History of the People of Israel. IKent, Hisfory of 
the Hebrew People. jKent, History of the fewish People. *Hall, The 
Ancient History of the Near East, chap. ix. IMacalister, A History 
of Civilizatioji in Palestine (Cambridge Manuals). 

*BuDDE, The Religiojt of Israel to the Exile. *CHEYNE,/^efzj-/i Reli- 
giotis Life after the Exile, tj. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and his 
Problems (Scribner's). 

HiLPRECHT, Recent Research in Bible Lands. fMACALlSTER, A His- 
tory of Civilization in Palestine (Cambridge Manuals). Current reports 
will be found in Journal of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and in Art 
and Archceology (see above). 

Day, Social Life of the Hebrews. 

The Old Testament in the Revised Version. tMooRE, The Literature 
of the Old Testament. *Cornill, Introduction to the Canonical Books of 
the Old Testament. *Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament. 
tBoTSFORD, A Source Book of Ancient History, chap. iv. 

The Underwood & Underwood stereoscopic photographs (edited by 
Hurlbut), Traveling ifi the Holy Land through the Stereoscope (100 
views with guidebook and maps). t(A selection of the best ten would 
include Nos. 8, 9, 18, 25, 39, 40, 41, 47, 61, 71.) Smith, George Adam, 
The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. Paton, Gtiide to Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER VIII 

A. Histories fBoTSFORD, Hellenic Histor\>, chap. i. fWESTERMANN, Ancient 
Nations, ^^. \-T^-^o. iGoOBSYEED, Ancient IVorld, pp. 6^-71. tfMYRES, 
Dawn of History, chap. viii. fKiMBALL-BuRY, Students^ Greece, chap. i. 
tBURY, History of Greece (second edition), pp. 1-43. ttREiNACH, 
Story of Art, pp. 26-32. ttHAWES, Crete the Foreninner of Greece. 
tBAiKiE, Sea Kings of Crete. fZiMMERN, Greek Commonwealth, Pt. I 
(second edition). 



Bibliography 



721 



The surviving documents are here almost wholly archseological, but B. Sources 
a few selections bearing on this chapter are to be found in Botsford ^"^ source 
and Sihler's Hellenic Civilization, chap. ii. selections 



CHAPTER IX 

BoTSFORD, Hellenic History, chap. ii. Westermann, A?icient Nations, 
chap. vii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 65-77. Myres, Dawn, chap, 
ix. KiMBALL-BuRY, Students' Greece, chap. ii. Bury, Greece, chap. i. 
*Hall, Ancietit History of the Near East, pp. 31-72. Hawes, Crete. 
Baikie, Sea Kings. *Mosso, Daw?i of Mediterranean Civilization. 

See note under preceding chapter, also fBoTSFORD, Source Book of 
Ancie7tt History, chap. vii. 

CHAPTER X 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



BoTSFORD, Hellenic History, chap. iii. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories 
Nations, chap, viii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 83-87, 91-99. 
KiMBALL-BuRY, Students* Greece, chap. ii. Bury, Greece, chap. i. 
tGREENiDGE, Greek Constitutional History, chap. ii. tfCAPPS, Homer 
to Theocritus, "^"^.1^-12%. \Y^YAAJ^Vi, Homeric Life. *S>'EYM0\5'R, Home?ic 
Age. ZiMMERN, Greek Commonwealth. 

ttBoTSFORD and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization, chap. ii. Botsford, 
Source Book of Ancient History, chaps, viii-ix. IThallon, Readings in 
Greek History, chap. i. Selections from the Iliad and Odyssey. 



B. Sources 
and source 
selection 



CHAPTER XI 

Botsford, Hellenic Histoy, chap. iv. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories 
Nations, chap. ix. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 79-82, 87-92, 100- ' 
loi. KiMBALL-BuRY, Students' Greece, chap. iii. Bury, Greece, chap. ii. 
fALLCROFT, History of Sicily, chaps, i-ii. Greenidge, Greek Constitu- 
tional History, chaps, ii-iii. Capps, Homer to Theocritus, pp. 129-140. 
Keller, Colonization, pp. 26-50. Zimmern, Greek Commonwealth. 

Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization, chap. iii. Botsford, B. Sources 
Source Book, c\i2i^.y:\. j%r^fl'^/?/'j-(RAWLiNSON), IV, 150-159. Hesiodand and source 
Theognis (Collins). Hesiod (Mair). Thallon, Readings, chaps, ii-iv. 



CHAPTER XII 

Botsford, Hellenic History, chaps, vi-ix. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories 
A-ations, chap. x. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 101-108, 115- 
125. Kimball-Bury, Students' Greece, pp. 79-89, and chaps, v-vi. 



722 



Ancient Times 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



Greenidge, Greek Constitutional Histofj, pp. 135-187. BuRY, Greece^ 
pp. 144-162 and chaps, iv-v. Capps, Homer to Theocritus , chaps, 
vi-vii. ttBENN, Ancient Philosophy, chaps, i-ii. Reinach, Story of 
Art, pp. 33-41. IMahaffy, Social Life in Greece, chaps, iv-v. Zim- 
MERN, Greek Commonwealth. 

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chap. iv. Botsford, Source Book, chaps, x, 
xii-xiv. \ Aristotle'' s Constitutio7i of Athens (Kenyon or Poste), 
chaps, i-xxii. ^ Plutarch' s Lives of Theseus and Solon. Mferodotus, I, 
29-33, 59~64 ; III, 39-46, 1 20-1 25. Thallon, Readings, chaps, iv and vi. 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XIII 

Botsford, Hellenic Histojy, chaps, x-xi. Westermann, Ancient 
Nations, Q)cvz.-^.yX\. Goodsfey-B, Ancient IVorld, pp. 126-144. KiMBALL- 
Bury, Students' Greece, chaps, vii-viii. Allcroft, History of Sicily, 
chaps, iiiff. Bury, Greece, chaps, vi-vii. Hall, Near East, chap. xii. 
tHoGARTH, Ancient East, pp. 1 20-186. *Abbott, Pericles, chap. iii. 
*Grundy, Great Persian War. 

Botsford and Sihler, pp. 162-172. IFling, Source Book of Greek 
History, chap. v. BoTSFORD, Soiirce Bock, chaps, xv-xvi. Herodotus, 
Bks. VI-IX, especially VII, 140-233. Plutarch's Lives of Aristides, 
Themistocles, Pausanias. ^^schylus'' Persians, especially lines 355-520. 
Thallon, Readings^ chaps, vii-viii. 



CHAPTER XIV 

A. Histories BoTSFORD, Hellenic IListoiy. Westermann, Ancient Natioits, chaps, 
xi and xiii. Goodspeed, /^wc.v;// World, pp. 109-115, 144-155, 168-173. 
KiMBALL-BuRY, Students' Gj'eece, pp. 64-74 and chaps, ix-x. Bury, 
Greece, pp. 120-143 and chap. viii. ISeignobos, Ancient Civilization, 
chap. xi. Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History, pp. 78-120, 189- 
207. t Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles, chaps, v-vii. * Abbott, 
Pericles, chaps, iv-viii. Zimmern, Greek Commo?iwealth. 

Botsford and Sihler, chaps, vi-vii. Botsford, Source Book, chap, 
xvii. Plutarch s Lives of Aristides, Cimon, Lycurgics. Xenophon's State 
of the Lacedcemonians. Aristotle's Athenian Constitution, chaps, xxiii- 
xxvii. t Thucydides (Jowett), I, 98-103, 127-139. Thallon, Readings, 
chaps. V and ix. 

CHAPTER XV 

A. Histories BoTSFORD, Hellenic History. WESTERMANN, Ancient Nations, chaps, 
xiv-xv. GOODSPEED, Ancient World, 156-169. KiMBALL-BURY, Stu- 
dents' Greece, chap. xi. Seignobos, Ancient Civilization, chap. xiv. 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



Bibliography 



7^1 



I 



Bury, Greece, chap. ix. Grant, Age of Pericles, chaps, vii-x, xii. Benn, 
Ancient Philosophy, chap. iii. ttTARBELL, History of Greek Art, chaps, 
iii, vii, and viii. Cw-ps, Homer to 7^/^<?(7<rr/'/?^j, chaps, viii-xii. tMoNROE, 
History of Education, pp. 28-59. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece, 
chaps, vi ff. Abbott, Pericles, chaps, xvi-xviii. Zimmern, Greek 
CommonTvealth . 

BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, viii-xi. Botsford, Source Book, chap, 
xviii. Plutarch's Pericles. ThalLON, Readings, chap. ix. 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XVI 

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap. A. Histories 
xvi. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 174-199. Kimball-Bury, Stu- 
dents^ Greece, chaps, xii and xiv. Bury, Greece, chaps, x-xi. Allcroft, 
Sicily. Grant, Age of Pericles, chap. xi. Abbott, Pericles, chaps, 
xiv-xv. ^Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, Lect. II. *Whibley, Political 
Parties in Athens. Zimmern, Greek Commonwealth. • 

Botsford and Sihler, chap. vi. Botsford, Source Book, chaps. B. Sources 

xix-xx. Fling, Soztrce Book, chap. vii. Plutarch's Lives of Alcibiades, ^"^ source 

selections 
Nicias, Lysander. Thucydides (Jowett), Selections. Thallon, Read- 
ings, chaps, x-xii. 

CHAPTER XVII 

Botsford, Hellenic Histoiy. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap. A. Histories 
xvii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 200-215. Kimball-Bury, Stu- 
dents' Greece, chaps, xv-xvii. Allcroft, History of Greece, ^04-362 b.c. 
Bury, Greece, chaps, xii-xiv. Allcroft, Sicily. Capps, Homer to 
Theocritus, pp. 330-338. ISankey, Spaitan and Theban Supremacies. 

Botsford, Source Book, chaps, xxii-xxiii. ^Xenophon's Anabasis, IV, B. Sources 
7ff. ; Agesilaos (Dakyns). Nepos' Epa?ninondas. Plutarch's Lives of gelect^on'^^ 
Pelopidas and Timoleon. Thallon, Readings, chaps, xiii-xiv. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, pp. A. Histories 
193-198. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 184-189, 215-220. Bury, 
Greece (see Index). Allcroft, Histoiy of Greece, 404-362 k.c, chap. xi. 
Capps, Homer to Theocritus, chaps, xv-xvii. Mahaffy, Social Life in 
Greece^ chaps, viff, Benn, Ancient Philosophy, chaps, iv-vi. Reinach, 
Story of Art, pp. 50-58, 66-74. MoNROE, History of Education, pp. 
59-72. Tarbell, Greek Art, chap. ix. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism.^ 
Lect. III. t Taylor, Plato. *Mauthner, Aristotle. 



724 



Ancient Times 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, xii-xv. Fling, Source Book, chap, 
viii. Thallon, Readings, pp. 513-516, 532-558. Xenophon' s Economics 
(Dakyns). Plato's Apology. Selections from Etcripides in fApPLETON, 
Greek Poets, and in fGoLDWiN Smith, Specimens of Greek Tragedy. 
Aristophanes'' Acharnians and Birds (Frere in Everyman's). 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XIX 

BoTSFORD, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, pp. 
187-193 and chap. xix. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 220-247. 
KiMBALL-BuRY, Students'' Greece, chaps, xviii-xx. Allcroft, Histoty 
of Greece, 362-323 b.c. Bury, Greece, chaps, xvi-xviii. IHogarth, 
Ancient East, pp. 186-217. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, Lect. IV. 
Capps, Homer to Theocritus, chap. xiv. fCuRTEiS, Macedonian E^npire. 
t Wheeler, Alexander. 

Botsford and Sihler, chap, xvi, passim. Botsford, Source Book, 
chaps, xxiv-xxv. PhitarcK's Lives of Demosthenes, Phocion, Alexander. 
\Arrian''s Anabasis (selections). Justin, History, Bk. IX (Bohn). De- 
mosthenes' Cj'own and Third Philippic. Thallon, Readings, chap, xv. 
Davis, Readings, I, chap. ix. 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XX 

Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chap. 
XX. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 248-256, 258-269. *Gardner, 
New Chapters in Greek History, chap. xv. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism, 
Lects. V-VII. tSnucKBURGH, G'n'^X'7¥7>/^;j, pp. 235-310. Greenidge, 
Greek Constitutional Histo?y, chap. vii. Mahaffy, Problei7is in Greek 
History, chap. ix. IMahaffy, Progress of Hellenis^n, Lects. II-IV. 
* Greek Life and Thought, chaps, iii-v, xvi. 

Justin, History, Bk. IX. Phttarch'' s Lives ofAratus, Demetrius, PyiThus, 
Agis, Cleomenes, Eumenes. Fling, Sou?re Book, chap. xiii. ^Polybius' 
Histories. Shuckburgh, Selections, especially on the Achaean League. 



CHAPTER XXI 

A. Histories Botsford, Hellenic History. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chaps. 
xxi-xxii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 256-262, 265-267. Hogarth, 
Ancient East, pp. 218-251. Mahaffy, Alexander's Empire, chaps, xiv, 
XX, and xxiii; Progress of Hellenism, Lect. V; G7'eek Life and Thought, 
chaps, i-ii, vi-xv. Monroe, History of Educatioji, pp. 73-78. tTucKER, 
Life in Ancient Athens, chap. ix. Tarbell, Greek Art, chap. x. Capps, 
Homer to Theocritus, chap, xviii. 



Bibliography 



725 



1 



BoTSFORD and Sihler, chaps, xvi-xix. Botsford, Source Book, B. Sources 
chaps, xxvi-xxvii. t Davis, Readings, I, chap. x. and source 

selections 

CHAPTER XXII 

Botsford, History of Rome, chaps, i-iv. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories 
Nations, chaps, xxiii-xxv. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 276-325, 
33^^-342. t Bryant, Short History of Rome, chaps, i-vii. tFowLER, 
Ro?ne, pp. 7-54. ttMYRES, Dawn, chap. x. Mosso, Dawn of Civiliza- 
tion, chaps, xxi-xxii, xxiv-xxv. Jones, Companion to Roman History, 
pp. 1-12. iHeitland, Short History of the Roman Republic, pp. 1-82. 
tHow and Leigh, History of Rome, pp. 1-131. fPELHAM, Otctlines, 
pp. 45-67. ttABBOTT, Rotnan Political Institutions, c\vz.^.\\. tCARTER, 
Religion of Numa. *Frank, Roman Imperialism. 

Botsford, Story of Rome, chaps, i-iv ; Sotirce Book, chaps, xxix-xxxi. B. Sources 

MUNRO, Source Book, chaps, i, ii, iv, and v. Plutarch's Lives of Romulus, *"^ source 
,^ „ , ^ •* selections 

Mima, Pyrrhus, Camilhcs. Davis, Source Readings, II, pp. 1-40. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

^oi'&YO'KD, History of Rome, c\i2i-^.v. ^^ST^^uxmi, Ancient Nations, A. Histories 
pp. 275-276, 279-284. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 326-331, 343- 
346. Bryant, Short History, pp. 67-74. Fowler, Rome, pp. 55-83. 
Heitland, Short History, pp. 82-97. fLiDDELL, Stitdenfs Rome, pp. 218- 
229. *Greenidge, Rojnan Public Life, chap. vii. How and Leigh, 
Ro?ne,^'p. 131-148. ISmith, Cai'thage and the Carthaginians. Frank, 
Roman Imperialism. 

Botsford, Story of Rome, pp. 101-104; Source Book, chap, xxxii. B. Sources 
Munro, Source Book, chap. iii. Davis, Source Readings, II, pp. 41-50. selec^t?onr 



CHAPTER XXIV 

'BOTSVORD, Histor)' of Rojne,c\ia:p.v. Westekma^N, Ancient Nations, A. Histories 
chaps, xxvi-xxvii. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 346-354. Fowler, 
Ro7ne, pp. 84-110. Bryant, ShoH History, pp. 73-79 and chaps, ix-xi. 
How and Leigh, pp. 169-244. Liddell, Rome, pp. 256-320. *Havell, 
Republican Rome, pp. 156-274. Heitland, Short Histoiy, pp. 98-145. 
*MoRRIS, Hannibal. Frank, Roman Imperialism. 

Botsford, Story of Rome, pp. 104-124; Source Book, chap, xxxiii. 
Munro, Source Book, chap. vi. Davis, Source Readings, II, chap. iii. 
Polybius, I, 56-62; III, 49-56. \Livy, xxi, 32-38. Plutarch's Lives of 
Fabius and Marcellus. 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



y26 



Ancient Times 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XXV 

BoTSFORD, History of Rofne, pp. 1 16-150. Westermann, Ancient 
Nations, chaps, xxix-xl. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 354-363, 
365-392. Bryant, Short Histofy, chaps, xii-xiv. Fowler, Rome, 
pp. 1 10-135. tMASOM, Rome, 133-78 b.c, chap. i. tALLCROFT and 
Masom, Rome, 202-133 b.c., chaps, x-xiv. t Davis, Influence of Wealth 
in Imperial Rome, chap. ii. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, 
chap. V. Greenidge, Roman Public Life, chap, viii; Roman History, 
Vol. I, chap. i. *DuFF, Literary History of Rojne, pp. 92-117. Pel- 
ham, Outlines, pp. 149-198. Heitland, Short Histoiy, pp. 146-248. 
tABBOTT, Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, pp. 22-40. 

Botsford, Story of Rome, pp. 125-126 and chap, vi; Source Book, 
chaps, xxxiv-xxxv. Davis, Source Readings, II, pp. 85-104. Munro, 
Source Book, chaps, vii and xii. Livy, xxxiv, 1-8; xlv, 10-12. Phitarch's 
Lives of Cato the Censor, Flaminitis, ^milius Paulus. 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Botsford, History of Rome, chaps, vii-viii. Westermann, Ancient 
Nations, chaps, xxxi-xxxiv and pp. 379-382. Goodspeed, Ancient 
World, pp. 392-428. Bryant, Short History, chaps, xv-xxvi. Fowler, 
Rome, pp. 136-186. Heitland, Short History, pp. 249-512. jAbbott, 
Common People of Ancient Rome, pp. 235-286. Pelham, Outlines, 
pp. 201-258, 398-469. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, chaps, 
vi-vii. How and Leigh, Rome, pp. 331-551. tPRESTON and Dodge, 
Private Life of the Romans, chap. v. tALLCROFT, Rome, 78-31 b.c. 
Frank, Roman Imperialism. *Jones, Co?npanion to Roman History. 

Botsford, Story of Rome, chaps, vii-viii; Source Book, chaps, xxxvi- 
xxxvii. Munro, Source Book, pp. 180-185 and chap. viii. Davis, Source 
Readings, II, pp. 105-162. Plutarch's Lives of Tiberius and Gains Grac- 
chus, Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Cicero, Ccesar, Sertorius. t Ccesar's 
Gallic War, I, 42-47. Sallust''s Jugurthine ^^r (Bohn). 



CHAPTER XXVII 

A. Histories BoTSFORD, History of Rome, pp. 204-232. Westermann, Ancient 
Natio?ts, pp. 382-403. Fowler, Rome, pp. 187-2 11. Goodspeed, An- 
cient World, pp. 428-451. *JONES, Roman Empire, chaps, i-iii. fBuRY, 
Studenfs Roman Empire, chaps, i-xii. Abbott, Roman Political Insti- 
tutions, chap. xii. Davis, Influence of Wealth, chap. vii. Pelham, Out- 
lines, pp. 357-509. *FiRTH, Aupistus. t Fowler, History of Roman 



Bibliography 



727 



Literature, Bk. II. [fMACKAiL, Roman Literature, Bk. II, chaps, i-v. 
tTuCKER, Life in the Roman World, chap. v. 

BOTSFORD, story of Rome, chaps, ix-x ; Source Book, chaps, xxxviii- B. Sources 
xxxix. MuNRO, Source Book, chaps, ix and xi. Davis, Source Readings, ^^^ ^9"''^^ 
pp. 163-196. ILaing, Masterpieces of Latin Literatitre (selections); 
\The Deeds of Augustus (Fairley's translation in the Pennsylvania 
Translations and Reprints), Vol. V, No. i. Suetonius'' Lives of the 
CcEsars (selections). ^Tacitus' Annals, XV, 38-45, 60-65. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, pp. 232-266. Westermann, Ancient A. Histories 
yV^«//^«j, pp. 403-435. Fowler, yv^(7w^, pp. 211-251. Goodspeed, ^«- 
cient World, pp. 451-482. Pelham, Outlines, pp. 509-541. Reinach, 
St07y of An, pp. 75-83. IPellison, Roman Life in Pliny's Time, chap. ix. 
*Mau and Kelsey, Pompeii, chaps, vii-viii, xii-xxii, xlvi-xlviii, Ivi-lix. 
Tucker, Romaii Life, chaps, i-iii, xix-xxi. Greenidge, Rofnan Public 
Life, chap. xi. *Hardy, Studies in Roman History, Series I, chaps, i-v. 
Jones, Roman Empire, chaps, iv-vi. Davis, Influejice of Wealth, chaps, 
iii-vi. '^Xi^Y, Students'' Roman Empire. *Cumont, Oriental Religions i7i 
Roman Paganism (an epoch-making work). 

BoTSFORD, Stoiy of Rome, chap, xi; Sou7-ce Book, chap. xl. Davis, 
Source Readings, II, pp. 196-287. Munro, Sou7-ce Book, pp. 162-171, 176- 
179. Letter's of Pliny (Firth). New Testament, The Acts. 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XXIX 

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, chap. xii. Westermann, Ancietit A. Histories 
Nations, chaps. xl-xU. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 483-501. Jones, 
Roman Empire, chaps, vii-xi. Oman, Byzantine Empire, chap. ii. 
Abbott, Roman Political Lnstitutions, chap. xvi. *Wright, Palmyra 
and Zenobia, chaps, xi-xv. Seignobos, Ancient Civilization, pp. 332- 
346. Davis, OtUline History, pp. 130-183. Pelham, Outlines, pp. 
577-586. tCuTTS, St. ferome. Jones, Companion to Roman Histoiy. 
*Cotterill, Medieval Ltaly, pp. 21-54. Davis, Lnfuence of Wealthy 
chap. viii. *Uhlhorn, Conflict of Christianity ivith Heatheitism, 

pp. 420-479- 

BoTSFORD, Source Book, chaps, xli-xliii, xlv. Davis, Source Readings, B. Sources 
II, pp. 287-389. MuNRO, Source Book, pp. I7i-I74- tRoBlNSON, Read- ^^^^l^^^^ 
ings in European History, Vol. I, pp. 14-27- The Notitia Dignitatum 
{Pennsylvania T^-anslations ajid Reprifits). 



728 



Ancient Times 



A. Histories 



B. Sources 
and source 
selections 



CHAPTER XXX 

BoTSFORD, History of Rome, chaps, xiii-xiv. Westermann, /^««V«/ 
Nations, chaps. xUi-xlv. Goodspeed, Ancient World, pp. 502-521. 
fOMAN, Byzantine Empire, chaps, iii, vi, ix, xi-xii. Cotterill, Medieval 
Italy, pp. 55-116, 159-185, 194, 205, 251-283. tHoDGKiN, Dynasty of 
Theodosius, pp. 55-72, 134-203. fH. W. C. Davis, Medieval Europe, 
chap. i. Reinach, Story of Art, pp. 84-91. Jones, Roman Empire, 
pp. 410-446. *HuTTON, Church and the Barbarians, chaps, iv-x. 
*Emerton, Introductiofi to the Middle Ages. *MoREY, Outlines of 
Roman Law. 

BoTSFORD, Sou7xe Book, chaps, xliv-xlvi. Davis, Source Readings, II, 
chaps, x-xi. fRoBlNSON, Readings in European Histojy, Vol. I, pp. 
19-27, 97-100 and chaps, iii-vi. Tacitus^ Germania. Ccesa'>''s Gallic War, 
VI, pp. 21-28. ^Eugippus" Life of St. Severinus (Robinson), fordanes^ 
Gothic History (Mierow). English Correspondence of St. Boniface 
(Kylie). 



A. General 
and political 
histories 



B. Constitu- 
tional and 
institutional 
history 



C. Life and 

society 



ADDITIONAL WORKS OF REFERENCE ON THE GREEK 
AND HELLENISTIC AGE, TOPICALLY ARRANGED 

The histories of Greece by Grote, Curtius, Holm, Abbott. IFree- 
MAN, Story of Sicily ; ^History of Federal Government. *Deniker, Races 
of Man. *Ferguson, Hellenistic Athens. *Bevan, House of Seleucus, 
*Rawlinson, Bactria. *Hogarth, Philipp and Alexander. *Dodge, 
Alexander. ^Gkv^HY, Thttcydides and the Histofy of his Age. *Tarn, 
Antigonos Gonatas. ^Ti'Li.\AKii, Agathocles. *M AH affy, Silver Age of 
the Greek World. 

*GiLBERT, Greek Constitutional Antiquities. *Phillipson, Interna- 
tional Law and Ctcstom of Ancient Greece and Rome. tCALHOUN, 
Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation. *ToD, International Arbitra- 
tion amongst the Greeks. *Whibley, Greek Oligarchies. fHAMMOND, 
Political Institutions of the Ancient Greeks. 

ttGuLiCK, Life of the Anciejit Greeks. *GuHL and Koner, Life of the 
Greeks and Romans. jGardner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals. 
tBLUEMNER, Ho7ne Life of the Ancient Greeks. fDAVIS, A Day in 
Ancient Athens. ^'Dayidsq-h, Education of the Greek People. *Mahaffy, 
What have the Greeks done for Modem Civilization ? *Ball, ShoJt 
History of Mathematics. *]o^'E.s, Greek Morality. *V^AKT), The Ancient 
Lowly. tDoNALDsoN, Woman ; her Position and Influence in Greece 
and Rome. *Abrahams, Greek Dress. 



Bibliography 



729 



♦Farnell, Higher Aspects of Greek Religion. *Murray, Four Stages 
in Greek Religion. *Harrison, Religion of Ancient Greece. *Adam, 
Religious Teachers of Greece. *Halliday, Greek Divination. *Fair- 
BANKS, Mythology of the Greeks and Romans. fBuLFiNCH, Age of Fable. 

*Gardner, Ancient Athens ; * Handbook of Greek Sculpture. tFoWLER 
and Wheeler, Greek Archceology. fRiCHARDSON, Vacation Days in 
Greece. *Schreiber, Atlas of Classical Antiquities (illustrated). 

tFowLER, Ancient Greek Literature. tCROlSET, Greek Literature. 
^]YNO'iiS, Greek Literature. *MACViAi'Ly Lectures on Greek Poetry. *Jebb, 
Greek Literature \ * Classical Greek Poetry \ * Attic Orators. *Lang, 
Homer and the Epic. *MURRAY, Rise of the Greek Epic. *MoULTON, 
Ancient Classical Drama. *Haigh, Attic Theatre. tBuRT, Brief History 
of Greek Philosophy, f Mayor, Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. *S ANDYS, 
Classical Greek Scholarship. 

There is no cheap dictionary of classical antiquities, t Harper, 
Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. *Whibley, Com- 
panion to G7'eek Studies . *Hall, Companion to Classical Texts. fTozER, 
Ancient Geography, f Shepherd, Atlas of Ancient History. The new 
series of individual maps of the ancient world by | Murray are very 
valuable. tPuTZGER, Schulatlas. tSlECLiN, Schulatlas. A new series 
of classroom wall maps for ancient history (edited by fBREASTED & 
Huth) is being published by the Denoyer Geppert Company, Chicago. 

tMlCHAELlS, A Century of Archceological Discoveries. *SCHUCHARDT, 
Schliemann' s Excavations. tBuRROWS, Discoveries ijz Crete. *Mosso, 
The Palaces of Crete. *Garstang, Asia Minor, ft H awes, Crete the 
Forerunner of Greece. 

The Underwood & Underwood series of stereoscopic photographs of 
Greece and its monuments (edited by Richardson), Greece through the 
Stereoscope (100 views with guidebook and maps). A short description 
is also printed on the back of each view. See remarks above, p. viii. 
t(A selection of fifteen of the most useful views comprises Nos. i, 8, 
21, 35» 39» 42, 48, 54, 62, 64, T], 80, 87, 96, 97.) 



D. Religion 
and mythol- 
ogy 



E. Art and 
archaeology 



F. Literature 
and philoso- 
phy 



G. Hand- 
books, 
atlases, etc. 



H. Explora- 
tion and dis- 
covery 



GREEK AUTHORS IN TRANSLATION 

^^chylus (Campbell, verse). Alcceus (Easby-Smith). Aristophanes 
(Frere; Rogers). Aristotle (Kenyon ; Poste). Demosthenes (Ken- 
nedy). Euripides {Uv'Bi'SiW \ Way). Herodotus {KAV^-Liiiso^). Hesiod 
(with Callimachus and Theognis, by Banks; with Theognis, Collins; 
best translation of Hesiod alone, Mair). Homer: Lliad (Lang, Leaf, 
Myers; Bryant); (9^.rJ0' (Butcher and Lang ; Bryant). Lsocrates 



730 



Ancient Times 



(Freese). Pausanias (Frazer). Pindar (Myers). Plato (Jowett). 
Plutarch (Clough ; selected Lives, by Perrin). Polybius (Shuck- 
burgh). Strabo (Hamilton and Falconer). Thucydides (Jowett; 
Crawley). Xenophon (Dakyns). 



A. General 
and political 
histories 



B. Constitu- 
tional and 
institutional 
history 



( ■. Life and 
society 



D. Religion 
and mythol- 
ogy 



ADDITIONAL WORKS OF REFERENCE ON THE 
ROMAN AGE, TOPICALLY ARRANGED 

For a detailed criticism of the tradition about earliest Rome (p. 497, 
note), see tlHNE, Historyi of Rovie. Other more extended and valuable 
histories are those of Mommsen, Heitland, Duruy, Long, Ferrero, 
Merivale, Gibbons. See also *Mommsen, Provinces. *Bussell, Roman 
Empire. Other special works are *Dodge, Hannibal. *How, Han- 
nibal and the Great War. tSTRACHAN-DAViDSON, Cicero. fBoiSSlER, 
Cicero and his Friends. tFowLER, Ccesar. *SiHLER, Jitlius Ccesar. 
*HoLMES, Ccesar's Conquest of Gaul. *Shuckburgh, Augtistus. *Tar- 
VER, Tiberius. *Baring-Gould, Tragedy of the Ccesars. \Q KY'SJS,, Early 
Empire. *Watson, Marcus Aurelius. *Bryant, Antoninus Pius. 
*Gregorovius, Hadrian. *Henderson, Life and Principate of the 
Emperor Nero. *HoPKlNS, Alexander Severus. *Hay, Heliogabalus. 
*FlRTH, Constantine. fCuTTS, Constantine. *BoissiER, Roman Africa. 
tBoucHlER, Life and Letters in Roman Africa; * Roman Spain. 
*Glover, Life and Letters in the E'ourth Century. 

tTAYLOR, Constitutional and Political History of Rome. *Mattingly, 
Imperial Civil Service. *BoTSFORD, Roman Assemblies. * Arnold, 
Roman Provincial Administration. *Reid, Mtmicipalities of the Roman 
Empire. *Greenidge, Legal Procedure in Cicero''s Time. *Hadley, 
Introduction to Roman Laiv. *Fowler, City State of the Greeks and 
Romans. tBRYCE, The Roman and British Empires. 

*DlLL, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius; * Roman Society 
in the Last Century of the Western Empire. IBecker, Gallus. *BuCK- 
LAND, Roman Law of Slavery . flNGE, Society at Rome under the Ccesars. 
t Johnston, Private Life of the Romans. *Ingram, History of Slavery. 
*Friedlaender, Roman Life and Manners. tCHURCH, Roman Life 
in the Days of Cicero. *Oltver, Roman Economic Conditions. ^ Roman 
Farm Management, by a Virginia farmer (Fairfax Harrison). 

*Carter, Religious Life of Ancient Rome. *P'owler, Religious Ex- 
perience of the Roman People. fGRANGER, Worship of the Romans. 
tGuERBER, Myths of Greece and Rome, t Murray, Manual of Mythology. 
*Glover, Conflict of Religions. *FiSHER, Beginnings of Christianity. 
*Hatch, Organization of the Early Christian Churches. *Cumont, 
Mysteries of Mithra, 



Bibliography j 3 1 

*E. R. Barker, Bicried Herculaneum. *T. B. Platner, Topography E. Art and 
and Afonnments of Ancient Rome. fC. Huelsen, The Roman Forum, archaeology 
*H. B. Walters, Art of the Romans. *R. Lanciani, Ruins and Exca- 
vations of Ancient Rome\ * Pagan and Christian Rome. *J. Fergusson, 
History of Architecture, t Ramsay and Lanciani, Manual of Roman 
Antiquities. 

ttj. W. Mackail, Latin Literature. *Lawton, Classical Latin Litera- F. Literature 
ture. *C. T. Crutwell, History of Roman Literature. *Teuffel and and philoso- 
Schwabe, Histoiy of Roman Literature. *W. Sellar, Roman Poets of ^ ^ 
the Republic; * Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. *E. V. Arnold, 
Roman Stoicism. See works on ancient philosophy under Greece. 

tMiCHAELis, A Century of Aixhczological Discoveries. *Mau and G. Explora- 

Kelsey, Pompeii, its Life and Art. Barker, Buried Herculaneum. *'^" ^"*^ ^'^' 

covcrv 
*Peet, Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy. Lanciani, Ruins and Excava- 
tions of Ancient Rome. 

The Underwood & Underwood series of stereoscopic photographs of H. The 
Rome and Italy (edited by Ellison and Egbert), Italy through the monuments 
Stereoscope (loo views with explanatory volume and set of maps). See to-day 
above, p. viii. t(A selection of the most useful fifteen views comprises 
Nos. 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 12,, 34, 43, 45, 46, 47, 58, 60, 62, 91.) 

ROMAN AUTHORS AND OTHER SOURCES FOR 
ROMAN HISTORY IN TRANSLATION 

Ammianus Marcellinus (Bohn Ed.). Appian (White). G?j^«r (Bohn 
Ed.). Cassidorus' Letters (Hodgkin). Cicero's Letters (Shuckburgh) ; 
Works (Bohn Ed.). Dio Cassius (Foster or Carey). Eugippus' St. 
Severinus (Robinson). Horace (Martin; Lonsdale and Lee; Wick- 
ham), fordanes (Mierow). Josephus (Whiston). fustin, Nepos, and 
Eutropius {Bohn'Ed.). fuvenal {GiYYOKD). Z/?7y (Spillan; Brodribb). 
Lucretius (M.\JT^Ko). Marcus Aurelius (Rendall or Long). Monumen- 
tum Ancyranum (Fairley). Ovid (Riley). Plifty's Letters (Firth). 
Propertius (Moore). Sallust, with Florus and Paterciclus (Bohn Ed.). 
Strabo (Falconer). Suetonius (Forester). Tacitus (Church and 
Brodribb). Fzr^// (Bryce ; Crane). 



i 



INDEX 



KEY TO PRONUNCIATION 



a as in fat 
a as in errand 
a as in face 
a as in surface 
a as in far 
a as in fall 
a as in ask 
a as in sofa 



e as in met 
e as in prudent 
e as in be 
e as in begin 
e as in her 
i as in pin 
1 as in pine 



o as in bonnet 
o as in valor 
o as in bone 
9 as in obey 
o as in move 
o like u in Jude'a 
6 as in nor 
oi as in oil 



u as m must 
u as in muse 
u as in musician 
ii as in nature 
u as in piiU 
g as in get 
h as in French boh 
th as in thin 



A'bra ham, 208 
Abusir (aboser'), 235 
Academy, 356, 420, 477 f. 
Achaean (a ke'an) League, 450 f. 
Achaeans (a ke'anz), 254 
AcropoHs (a krop'o lis), 261, 343, 

364, 366 f. 
Actium (ak'shi um), 599 
Adrianople (ad ri an o'pl), 692 
Adriatic (a dri at'ik), 345 
^galeos (ega'le os), 322 
JEgean (e je'an) world, 225 ff.; 

oriental influences in, 240 f. ; 

fall of, 255 ff. 
^gina (eji'na), 331, 344 
/Egospotami (e gos pot'a ml), 391 
^neas (e ne'as), 601, 616 
iE^neid (e ne'id), the, 616 
^schylus (es'ki lus), 363, 371 
^tolian (e to'li an) League, 45 
^tolians (e to'li anz), 450 
Agriculture in Late Stone Age, 

22 ff. ; social effects of, 24 
Agrippa (agrip'a), 610, 612 
Agrippina (agripi'na), 620 
Ahuramazda (a ho ra maz'da), 185 
Ak'kad, 121, 124 f. 
Alaric (ararik), 693 
Alba Longa (al'ba long'ga), 492 ff. 
Alcibiades (al si bi'a dez), 383, 

385 f., 390 



the 



446, 



Alemanni (al e man'i), 691 

Alexander (al eg zan'der) 
Great, 425 ff., 445 f. 

Alexandria (al eg zan'dri a), 
450, 461 ff. ; ]evfs at, 453 

Alexandrian (al eg zan'dri an) edu- 
cation, 475 ff. 

Alexandrian library, 472 ff., 594 

Alexandrian literature, 475 

Alexandrian Museum, 477 

Alexandrian scientists, 468 ff. 

Ali Baba (a'le ba'ba), 89 

Alphabet, Egyptian, 42, 96 f., 
Phoenician, 270 ff., 501 ; Greek, 

..27 If., 499 f. 

A mar'na, tombs at, 92 f., 204 ; 

_ letters at, 93 f. 

A men ho'tep III, 89 

Amenhotep IV, 91 ff. 

Am'pn, 415, 439 

Amorites (am'o rits), 104, 128 

A'mos, 208 f. 

Amphictyonies(amfik'ti oniz),29i 

Amphitheater, 644, 650 

Ancyra (ansfra), 617 

Andronicus (an dro ni'kus), 560 

Angles (ang'glz), 694 

Animals of prehistoric Europe, 
3 f. ; domestication of, 24 

An tig'o nus, 446 

Antigonus II, 449 



733 



734 



Ancie7it Times 



Antioch (an'ti ok), 448, 450 
Antiochus (antrokus), 445, 448 
Antiochus the Great, 55of. 
Antoninus Pius (an to ni'nus 

pi'us), 634, 664 
Antony (an'toni), 586 f., 596 ff. 
Apelles (apei'ez), 466 
Aphrodite (af ro di'te), 279, 502 
Apollo (a pors), 315 f. 
ApoUodorus (a pel do'rus), 409 
A ra'bi a, loi f. 
Ar'abs, 708 ff. 
Aramaic (arama'ik), 146 f.; 

triumph of, 148, 183, 190 
Arameans (ar a me'anz), 144 ff., 

162 
Ar be'la, 435 

Arcadius (ar ka'di us), 692 f. 
Archimedes (ar ki me'dez), 467 f. 
Areop'agus, 313, 341, 363 
Arginusae (arjinu'se), 391 
Ar'go lis, 331 
Ar'gos, 283 
A ri a'na, 176 

Aristarchus (ar istar'kus), 469,656 
Aristogiton (aris to ji'ton), 306, 

Aristophanes (ar is tof'a nez), 383, 

416 
Aristotle (ar'istotl), 428, 471, 478 
'i\rmenians (arme'ni aiiz), 255, 629 
Arrian (ar'i an), 655 
Ar'te mis, 279 

Artemisium (ar te mish'ium), 330 f. 
Aryans (ar'yanzj, 176 ff. 
Asculum (as'kuium), 517 
Asia (a'shia), 86, 89 
Asia Minor (mrnor), 226, 248 f., 

643 

Assur (as'or), 140 f., i5of. 

Assurbanipal (a sor ba'ni pal), 160 

Assyria (asir'la), 140 ff., 148 f., 
210 ff., 629 

Assyrian (asir'ian) art and sculp- 
ture, 158 f. 

Assyrian civilization, 158 

Assyrian Empire, 151 ff., iSSff-, 
160 ff. ' 

Assyriology, 194 

Astrology, 168 

A the'na, 279, 362, 369 

Ath e ne'um, 643 



A the'ni an art and literature, 362 ff, 
Athenian Empire, 339 ff., 378 ff. 
Athenian government, 303 ff., 

341 f., 361, 363 f., 379 
Athenian law, 303, 305 
Athenian money and prices, 346 
Athenian society, 350 f. 
Athenian war, cost of, 347 
Athens (ath'enz), 284, 296, 298, 

336 ff., 344 ff., 420, 613 
Athletic games, 290 f., 307 f. 
Ath'os, Mount, 324, 328, 439 
Attica (at'i ka), 283, 324, 346 
Attila (at'i la), 694 
Augustan (a gus'tan) Age, 607 ff. 
Augustine (a giis'tin), 699 f. 
Augustus (agus'tus), 596 ff. 
Aurelian (§, re'lyan), 676 
Australia (§,stra'lia), 3 
A ves'ta, 179 

Ba'bel, Tower of, 112 

Babylon (bab'i Ion), 128, 133, I52f., 

164 ff. 
Babylonia (bab i lo'ni a), 105 f, 
Babylonian (bab i lo'ni an) art and 

architecture, 137 
Babylonian astrology, 168, 661 
Babylonian divination, 134, 503 
Babylonian education, 135 f. 
Babylonian religion, 134 
Bag dad', 710 

Balearic (bal e ar'ik) Islands, 525 
Barbarian invasions, 688 ff. 
Basilica (ba sil'i ka) church, 702 ff. 
Behistun (be his ton') inscription, 

184 f., 190 ff., 194 
Bel i sa'ri us, 696 
Belshazzar (bel shaz'ar), 181 
Black Sea, 344 
Boeotia (be o'shia), 284, 334, 402, 

404 
Boghaz-Koi (bo'ghaz ke'e), 249 
Book of the Dead, 91 
Bos'po rus, 683 
Brindisi (bren'de se), 487 
Britain (brit'an), 589, 694, 701 
Bronze Age, 222 ff., 227 
Brundisium (brun disli'i um), 487 
Brutus (bro'tus), 596, 598 
Burgundians (ber gun'di anz), 693 
Byzantium (bi zan'shi um), 683 



hidex 



735 



Caere (se're), 499, 521 
Caesar (se'zar), 586 ff., 613 
Calendar, 45, 467, 595 
Caligula (ka lig'u la), 618 f. 
Callimachus (ka lim'a kus), poet, 

. 473' 475 

Callimachus, soldier, 326 

Callisthenes (kalis'the nez), 443 

Cambyses (kain bi'sez), 182 

Canaanites (ka'nanits), 104, 200 f. 

Cannae (kan'e), 540 f. 

Capua (kap'u a), 497, 521 f., 543 

Carchemish (kar'kem ish), 241 

Carthage (kar'thaj), 267, 333, 439, 
490, 518, 520 ff., 546 

Carthaginian (kar tha jin'i an) civ- 
ilization, 526 ^ 

Carthaginians, 489 

Cassius (kashius), 596, 598 

Catiline (kat'i I'm), 586 f. 

Cecilia Metella (se sil'i a me tera), 
492 

Cecrops (se'krops), 407 

Censors, 505, 509 

Ceres (se'rez), 502 

Chaeronea (ker ne'a), 428 

Chaldean (kal de'an) Empire, 
164 ff., 213 

Chaldeans (kal de'anz), 162 

Chalons (shaloii'), 694 

Champollion (sham poFi 011) 96 ff., 

455 
Charlemagne (shar'le man), 702 
Charles Martel (mar tel'), 702 
Cheops (ke'ops), 56 
Chephren (kef ren), 56 
Chios (ki'os), 300 
Christianity, 663 f., 682 ff. 
Church, African, 699 ; Eastern, 

698 ff. ; Western, 698 ff. 
Cicero (sis'e ro), 586 f., 597, 613 f. 
Cimbrians (sim'bri anz), 597 
Cimon (sfmon), 339, 341, 356 
Claudius (kl^'di us), 619 f. 
Cleomenes (kle om'e nez), 451 
Cleon (kle'on), 383 f. 
Cleopatra (kle o pa'tra), 455, 593 f., 

598 f. 
Clerestory, 70 f. 
Clisthenes (klis'the nez), 306 f., 

342 
Clitus (kirtus), 442 



Clovis (klo'vis), 701 

Cnidus (ni'dus), 300 

Cnossus (nos'us), 233 f. 

Coloni (ko lo'ni), 668 f. 

Colosseum (kolose'um), 622, 649 

Comitia (ko mish'ia), 507 f. 

Commodus (kom'odus), 673 

Constantine (kon'stan tin), 683 f. 

Constantinople (kon stan ti no'pl), 
683 f. 

Consuls, 504 f., 509 

Copper Age, 222 f. 

Cor'inth, 296, 331, 344, 348, 552 

Corinthian War, 401 ; architec- 
ture, 407 f . 

Corsica (kor'sika), 535 

Council of Five Hundred, 361, 

365 
Crassus, 587, 590 
Crete (kret), 227 ff., 235 f., 248 
Croesus (kre'sus), 180 f. 
Ctesiphon (tes'ifon), 667, 675 
Cumae (ku'me), 521 
Cuneiform writing, iiof., 189 f., 

242 
Cynocephalae (sin os sef a le), 550 
Cyrene (si re'ne), 415, 525 
Cyrus (si'rus) the Great, 179 ff. 
Cyrus the Younger, 399 f. 

Dacians (da'shi ans), 627, 630 
Damascus (da mas'kus), 151, 211 
Darius (darfus) the Great, 185, 

324 ff. 
Darius III, 431, 435 
David, 204 f. 
Decelea (desele'a), 389 
Delian (de'li an) League, 339, 348, 

390 
De'los, 297, 339, 348 
Delphi (del'fi), 315 ff., 643, 684 
De me'ter, 279, 315, 502 
Democracy, 301 ff., 307, 395 f., 406 
Demosthenes (de mos'the nez), 

427 f. 
Demotic (de mot'ik) writing, 44 
Den'mark, 17 ff., 223 
Dictator, 506, 531, 539 
Diocletian (dl kle'shian), 676ff. 
Dionysius (di 5 nish'i us), gram 

marian, 474 f. 
Dionysius, tyrant, 490 



736 



Ancient Times 



, 



Dionysus (dlonrsus), 279, 310, 

362 
Dipylon (dipl Ion) Gate, 365 
Domitian (do mish'ian), 627 
Dorians (do'ri anz), 254 f. 
Dor'ic column, 311, 340, 367, 370 
Draco (dra'ko), 303 
Dru'sus, 581 
Dur-Sharrukin (dor-shar ro ken'), 

152 

Early Stone Age, 5 ff. 
Ecbatana (ek bat'a na), 437 
Egypt, 35 ff.; Stone Age of, 38; 

conquered by Assyria, I53f. ; 

conquered by Alexander, 434 ; 

a Roman province, 599 
Egyptian art and architecture, 

68 ff., 87 ff. 
Egyptian classes of society, 67 
Egyptian emperors, burial place 

of, 94 f. 
Egyptian Empire, 80 ff. ; higher 

life of, 86 ff. ; religion in, 91 ff., 

659 ; fall of, 93 ff. 
Egyptian gods, 50 
Egyptian industrial progress, 62 ff. 
Egyptian pyramids, 49 ff. 
Egyptian science, 78 
Egyptian slaves, 67 
Egyptian tombs, 49 ff. 
Egyptian vi^riting, 40 ff., 96 ff. 
Egyptology, 98 

Elephantine (el e fan ti'ne), 459 
Eleusis (e lii'sis), 315, 415 
Elijah (e li'ja), 207 
Embalming, 49 
E pam i non'das, 403 f. 
Ephesus (ef'e sus), 450 
Epicureanism, 478 
Epimachos (e pim'akos), 630 
Epi'rus, 517 
Eratosthenes (er a tos'the nez), 

459, 469, 471 f. 
Erechtheum (e rek the'um), 367, 

407 
E re'tri a, 324 
Er go ti'mos, 297 
Eskimos (es'ki moz), 12 
Etruscans (e trus'kanz), 488 f., 

495 ff- 
Euaenetus (ue'netus), 381 



Euboea (u. be'a), 324 
Euclid (u'klid), 469 
Eupatrids (u pat'ridz), 284 
Euripides (ii rip'i dez), 372 f., 400, 

406 
Europe (ti'rop), 3 ff., 221 ff. 

Fa'bi us, 540 

Fabricius (fa brish'i us), 494 

Fertile Crescent, loi 

Feudal Age in Egypt, 74 ff. ; tombs 

of, 76; administration in, 79; 

commerce of, 79 ; decline of, 

80 
Fire-making, 3, 5 
Fla min'i us, 539, 575 f. 
Fla'vi an emperors, 627 
Flint implements, 10 f. 
Forum, 495, 509, 609 
Franks, 691, 701 

Gaius Gracchus (ga'yus grak'us), 

577 
Galatia (ga la'shia), 449 
Ga le'ri us, 686 

Gallic invasion of the East, 449 
Gard (gar) River, 646 
Gaul (gal), 588 ff. 
Gelon (je'lon), 333 
German barbarians, 579, 588, 626, 

664, 674, 682, 688 ff. 
Girga mesh, 127 
Gizeh (ge'2;e), pyramids of, 49 ff. 
Gladiators, 564 
Glass-making in Egypt, 64 f . 
Gortyna (gor ti'na), 304 
Goths, 691, 695 
Gracchi (grak'I), 576 ff. 
Granicus (grani'kus), 430 
Great Mother, 414 
Greek architecture and sculpture, 

292, 310 ff., 406 ff. 
Greek colonies, 287 ff. 
Greek commerce, 287, 295 ff. 
Greek education, 308 
Greek games, 290 f., 307 f. 
Greek genius, 423 
Greek gods, 278 ff. 
Greek language, spread of, 453 
Greek literature, 293, 315 
Greek music, 308 f. 
Greek painting, 314 f., 406 ff. 



Index 



717 



Greek religion, 276 ff., 315, 480 

Greek sciences, 359 f., 419 

Greek slaves, 298 

Greek theater, 371, 374 

Greek vases, 314 

Greeks, 217, 250, 252 ff.; social 

institutions of, 259; kings of, 

260, 286 ; agriculture of, 260 ; 

supremacy of, 344 ff. ; in Italy, 

490 
Gregory (greg'o ri), 701 
Guinea (gin'i), 471, 525 
Gylippus (ii lip'us), 387 

Hades, 315 

Ha'dri an, 630 ff., 636, 650 

Hamilcar Barca (ha mirkar 
bar'ka), 534 

Hammurapi (hammora'pe), i28ff.; 
code of, 130 ff. 

Hannibal (han'i bal), 535 ff. 

Har mo'di us, 306, 313 

Hasdrubal (has'dro bal), 543 f. 

Hatshepsut (hat shep'sot), 83 f. 

Hebrew (he'bro) civilization, 201 f. 

Hebrew kingdom, 200 ff. ; divided, 
206 ff.; destruction of, 210 ff. 

Hebrew literature, 208, 216 

Hebrew religion, 214 

Hebrew writing, 209 

Hebrews, 144 f., 197 f.; exile of, 
213 f. ; religion of, 214; re- 
stored, 216 

Hecataeus (hek a te'us), 318 f., 
360 

Helicon (heri kon), Mount, 293 

Hellenes (hel'enz), 291 f. 

Hellenistic (hel e nist'ik) Age, 

453 ff- 
Hellenistic architecture, 560 
Hellenistic world, 481 ff. 
Hellespont (hel'espont), 324, 328, 

339 
Hephaestion (he f es'ti on), 443 
He'ra, 279 

Heraclea (herakle'a), 517 
Heracleia (herakli'a), 472 
Hermes (her'mez), 279, 502 
Herodes Atticus (he ro'dez 

at'i kits), 642 
He rod'o tus, 360 f., 363, 419 
He'si od, 293 



Hieratic (hi e rat'ik) writing, 44 
Hieroglyphics, 44 f.; deciphered, 

96 ff.; in Crete, 229; Hittite 

(hit'it), 241 
Hipparchus (hi par'kus), 306 
Hippias (hip'i as), 306, 324 
Hippocrates (hi pok'ra tez), 361, 

375 

HTram, 205 f. 

Hittite (hit'it) art and architec- 
ture, 242 

Hittite Empire, 243 f. ; fall of, 255 f. 

Hittite influence, 240 ff., 248 ff. 

Hittite religion, 242 f. 

Hittite writing, 241 f. 

Hittites, 93 f., 143, 149, 199, 202, 
239 f. 

Ho'mer, 275 f., 375 

Ho no'ri us, 692 f. 

Horace (hor'as), 615 f. 

Horse, in Egypt, 80 f. ; in Baby- 
lonia, 138, 143 

Huns (hunz), 692 

Ice Age, 7 f. 

Ictinus (iktrnus), 369 

Ikh na'ton, 92 ff. 

Illyricum (i lir'i kum), 693 

Imhotep (em ho'tep), 52 

In'di a, 437 

Indian Ocean, 79, 437 

Indo-European peoples, 171 ff. 

lonians (i o'ni anz), 316, 318 ff., 

322 ff. 
Ionic (i on'ik) column, 340, 367 f. 
Iphigenia (if i je ni'a), 410 
Iran (e ran'), 176 
Iranians (i ra'ni anz), 176 ff. 
Iron Age, 157, 263 
Isaac (i'zak), 208 
Isaiah (i za'ya), 210 f. 
Ish'tar, 134, 151, 168 
Is'lam, 706 

Isocrates (I sok'ra tez), 420, 422 
Israel (iz'ra el), 206 
Issus (is'usj. Gulf of, 430 f. 
Italic tribes, 488 
Italy (it'ali), 485 ff. 

Jacob, 208 

Jeremiah (jeremi'a), 213 

Jericho (jer'i ko), 203 



738 



Ancient Times 



Jerusalem (je ro'sa lem), besieged, 
2iof. ; destroyed, 213; rebuilt, 
216; taken by Sulla, 585; de- 
stroyed, 626 

Jesus, 115, 66i f., 705 

Joseph, 208 

Judah (jo'da), 206 

Judaism, 216, 661 

Jugurtha (jo ger'tha), 578 f. 

Julian (jo'lyan) "the Apostate," 
686 f., 691 

Juno (jo'no), 502 

Jupiter (jo'pi ter), 502 

Jus tin'i an, 695 ff., 705 f . ; code of, 
697 

Kaldi (kal'de), 162 
Kar'nak, 80 ff. 
Kassites (kas'Its), 144 
Khafre (kaf ra), 56, 70 f. 
Khufu (ko'fo), 54, 56 
King's Peace, 401 
Ko'ran, 707 
Kuyunjik (koyonjek'), 435 

Laconia (la ko'ni a), 283 
Lake-dweliers, Swiss, 21 f. 
Laocoon (la ok'o on), 465 
Late Stone Age, 14 ff. ; tools in, 
20 ; architecture in, 26 ; festivals 
and athletic contests in, 28 ; 
trades in, 29 ; commerce in, 31 ; 
wars in, 32 ; in Italy, 486 
Latin League, 511, 513 
Latin literature, 562 f. 
Latin war, 520 
Latins, 492 f. 

Latium (la'sliium), 492 ff., 616 
Laws, oldest surviving code of, 

132 ; earliest, in Greece, 303 
Le on'i das, 330 
Lep'i dus, 597 
Leuctra (luk'tra), 404 
Library, at Alexandria, 472 ff., 594 ; 

at Rome, 614 
Licinius (lisin'ius), 575 f. 
Lictors, 508 

Lilybaeum (111 i be'iim), 517 
Livy (liv'i), 614 f. 
Lom'bards, 701 
Lucullus (lukul'us), 585 
Lyceum (lise'uni), 356, 478 



Lydians (lid'i anz), 322 
Lysander (li san'der), 391, 401 f. 
Lysiades (li sfa dez), 381 
Lysicrates (li siVra tez), 381 

Macedon (mas'e don), 426, 550 
Macedonia (mas e do'ni a), 426 
Magi (ma'ji), 661 
Magnesia (mag ne'shia), 551 
Man ti ne'a, 404 
Mar'a thon, 324 ff. 
Marcellus (marserus), 610 
Marcus Aurelius (mar'kus are' 

li us), 664 f. 
Mar do'ni us, 328, -^y^ f. 
Marduk (mar'dok), 134, 168 
Ma'ri us, 579 ff. 
Mars, 502 

Massilia (ma sili a), 290 
Mausoleum (masSle'um), 408 
Mausolus (ma so'lus), 406 
Mayors of the Palace, 701 
Mecca (mek'a), 706 f. 
Medes (medzj and Persians (per'- 

shanz), 162, 177 
Median Empire, 177 
Meg'a ra, 303 
Memphis (mem'fis), 57 
Me nan'der, 562 
Menes (me'nez), 58 
Mercury (mer'ku ri), 502 
Mesopotamia (mes o po ta'mi a), 

629 
Messina (messe'na), 528 
Metal, Age of, 47 f., 222 f., 486 f. 
Metaurus (me ta'rus) River, 543 
Middle Stone Age, 9 ff. 
Ml le'tus, 316, 324 
Miltiades (mil ti'a dez), 325 f. 
Mithradates (mith ra da'tez), 583, 

585 
Mith'ras, 195, 678 
Mitylene (mit 1 le'ne), 383 
Mnesicles (ne'sik lez), 367 
Mohammed (mo ham'ed), 706 ff. 
Mohammedan conquests, 709 
Money, in Athens, 346; in Greece, 
299 ff.; in the Orient, 186, 299 f. 
Monica (mon'i ka), 699 
Monks, 700, 702 

Monotheism, in Kgypt, 92 f.; in 
Palestine, 214 



Index 



739 



Moors (morz), yiof. 
Moses (ino'zez), 200 
Moslems (uios'leiiiz), 702, 707 ft"., 

711 f. 
Mycale (mik'a le), 334 
Mycenae (mrse'ne), 237 f., 247 f. 
Mycenaean (mi se ne'an) Age, 

236 ff. 

Na'hum, 163 
Na po'le on, 455 
Na ram'sin, 123 f. 
Naucratis (na'kratis), 289 
Nebuchadnezzar (neb u kad nez'- 

ar), 164 ff., 213, 368 
Nemausus (nema'siis), 646 
Ne'ro, 620 ff. 
Ner'va, 627, 634 

New Persia (per'sha), 675, 678, 705 
New Testament, 662 
Nicaea (nl se'a), 686 
Nicias (nish'i as), 384 ff. 
Nicomedia (iiik o me'di a), 679 
Nile (nil), 37 ff. 
Nimes (nem), 646 
Nineveh (nin'e ve), 154 f., 163, 213 
Nippur (nip por'), 112, 116, 117 
Nobles,Greek, leadership of, 283 ff. 
Nomads, 25 f. 

North American Indians, 4, 40 
Nu'bi a, 86, 89 

Octavian (ok ta'vi an), 596 ff. 

Odoacer (o do a'ser), 695 

Old Testament, 217 

Oligarchy, 395 

Olympian (o lim'pi an) games, 308, 

356 

Oracles, 315 

Orient, achievements of, 218 ff.; 
influence on Greece, 264 f. ; re- 
vival of, 705 ff. 

Orpheus (or'fus), 414 

O si'ris, 50, 91 

Ostracism, 306 f. 

Os'tro-Goths, 695 

Paestum (pes'tum), 522 
Painted Porch, 363, 365, 497 
Pa ler'mo Stone, 46 
Palestine (paKestin), 197 ff., 256 
Palmyra (pal mi'ra), 676 



Panathenaea (pan atli e iie'a), 362 

Paper, making of, 43 f., 64 f. 

Papyrus (papi'rus), 43 f. 

Par me'ni 6, 431, 437, 442 

Parrhasius (pa ra'shi us), 41 1 

Par'the non, 367, 369 f. 

Parthians (par'thi anz), 590, 595, 
628 f., 675 

Pasargadae (pa sar'ga de), 182, 189 

Patesis (pa ta'sez), 113, 119 

Paul, 638, 662, 700 

Pausanias (pa sa'ni as), geog- 
rapher, 655 

Pausanias, Spartan general, 334 

Peloponnesian (pel o po ne'shian) 
War, First, 348 "f.; Second, 
380 ff.; Third, 385 ff. 

Per'ga mum, 453, 463 f., 472 

Per i an'der, 303 

Pericles (perl klez), 344, 348, 
350 ff., 381 ff. 

Peripatetics (per i pa tet'iks), 477 f. 

Per sep'o lis, 189 

Persian (per'shan) art and archi- 
tecture, 189 

Persian Empire, 182 ff. 

Persian kings, 194! 

Persian religion, 195 

Persian roads and communica- 
tions, 187 f. 

Persian sea power, 187 

Persian War, Athens in, 348 

Persian writing, 183 

Persians, 179 ff., 322 ff., 389 f. 

Peter, 700 

Phalerum (fale'riim), 331 

Pharaoh (fa'ro), 53 

Pharsalus (farsa'lus), 592 f. 

Phidias (fid'ias), 367, 369, ^82 

Philae (fi'le), 459 

Philip, 426 ff. 

Philippi (filip'i), 598 

Philistines (fi lis'tinz), 202 f., 256 

Philosophy, 316, 318 ff. 

Philotas (lilo'tas), 441 

Phoenicia (fe nish'a), 58 

Phoenicians (fe nish'anz), 144 f., 
265 ff., 290, 328, 471; alphabet 
of, 270 

Phonetic writing, 40 ff. 

Phrygians (frij'i anz), 255 

Pictorial records, 39 ff. 



740 



Ancient Times 



Pin'dar, 309, 415, 429 

Piraeus (pi re'us), 332, 339, 344, 

348 
Pi sis'tra tus, 306 
Plataea (plate'a), 326, 334, 684 
Pla'to, 411, 418, 420 f., 428 
Plautus (pla'tus), 562 
Plebs, 506 

Pliny (plin'i), the elder, 655 f. 
Pliny, the younger, 635, 654 f. 
Plow culture, 25 
Plutarch (plo'tark), 655 
Pnyx (niks), 343, 366 
Polybius (po lib'i us), 561 f. 
Polygnotus (pel ig no'tus), 363 
Pompeii (pom pa'ye), 410, 557, 

559, 636 f., 639 
Pompey (pom'pi), 584 ff., 590 ff. 
Poseidon (po si'don), 279 
Pottery, in Egypt, 63 ; in Europe, 

19 
Praetor (pre'tor), 506 
Praxiteles (praks it'e lez), 408 
Prehistoric Europe, 3 ff. 
Prie'ne, 458, 460 f., 476 
Psyttaleia (sit'ali'a), 332 
Ptolemies (td'e miz), 86, 446 f., 

593 

Ptolemy (td'e mi), astronomer, 
656 f. 

Punic War, First, 533 ff. ; Second, 
535 ff.; Third, 546 f. 

Pyramid Age, 49 ff. ; agriculture 
in, 61 ; '^rt and architecture in, 
68 ff.; cattle raising in, 61 f. ; 
classes of society in, 67; com- 
merce in, 58 f.; government in, 
53 ff.; length and date of, 57 f. ; 
occupations in, 62 ff. 

Pyrrhus (pir'us), 517 

Pythagoras (pi thag'o ras), 319 

Pytheas (pith'e as), 471 

Quaestors (kwes'torz), 505 

Ramses (ram'sez) II, 94 

Ramses III, 257 

Rawlinson (ra'linson), 190 ff. 

Re (ra), 50 

Red Sea, 59 

Rhetoricians, 420 

Rhodes (rodz), 450, 465, 613 



Roman amusements, 564 f. 

Roman army, 528 ff. 

Roman art and architecture, 523, 

608, 610 
Roman Church, 698 ff. 
Roman colonization, 512 
Roman commerce and banking, 

554 f., 640 
Roman conquests, 552 ff. 
Roman degeneration, 570, 669 
Roman Empire, 601 ff. ; civilization 

of the early Empire, 649 ff. ; 

decline of, 667 ff. ; division of, 

682 ff., 692 
Roman government, 504 ff., 520 ff. 
Roman house, 556 ff. 
Roman imperial organization, 

552 ff. 
Roman money, 501 f., 523, 671 
Roman painting, 653 
Roman provinces, 553 ff., 604 ff., 

636 ff., 641 
Roman religion, 502 ff., 659 ff. 
Roman Republic, 504, 507, 511; 

end of, 574 ff. 
Roman roads and bridges, 638 f. 
Roman schools, 561 
Roman sculpture, 652 
Roman Senate, 506, 509, 574 ff. 
Roman ships, 501, 534 
Roman slaves, 566 ff., 669 
Roman theaters, 610 
Rome (rom), 494 ff., 500; taken 

by Gauls, 513; rivalry of, with 

Carthage, 518, 520 ff. 
Rom'u lus and Re'mus, 484 
Romulus Augustulus {% giis'tu lus), 

695 
Rosetta (ro zet'ta) Stone, 97 f., 

193' 454 f. 
Royal tombs of Egypt, 94 f. 

Sal'a mis, 331 f., 371 

Samnites (sam'nits), 514 

Sa'mos, 298, 324 

Sappho (saf o), 309, 354 

Sar din'i a, 535 

Sar'dis, 322 

Sar^gon of Ak'kad, 122 f. 

Sargon II, 152 

Sassanians (sasa'ni anz), 675, 678 

Saul (sai), 203 



1 



Index 



741 



Saxons (sak'snz), 694 

Schliemann (shle'man), 245 f¥. 

Scipio (sip'i o), 544 ff. 

Scopas (sko'pas), 406, 409 

Scylax (si'laks), 186 f. 

Seleucids (se lu'sidz), 448 

Seleucus (se lu'kus), 445 f., 448 

Semites (sem'its), loi f. ; traffic of, 
103; religion of, 103 f.; art of, 
1 23 f.; union of, with Sumerians, 
I26f. ; struggle of, with Indo- 
Europeans, 172 ff., 524 ff., 706 f. 

Seneca (sen'e ka), 620 f., 654 

Sennacherib (se nak'e rib), 1 52, 
210, 212, 288 

Sen ti'num, 5i4f., 543 

Sep tim'i us Se ve'rus, 673, 675 

Se ra'pis, 631 

Se sos'tris, 80 

Se'ti I, 94 

Seven Wise Men, 320 

Shadoof (sha dof ), 36 

Shal ma ne'zer III, 211 

Shf nar, Plain of, 105 f. 

Sicilian (si sil'ian) expedition,385f. 

Sicilian War, 533 ff. 

Sicily (sis'i li), Greek colonists in, 
289 f. 

Sinai (si'm), 50, 59 

Slavery, in Egypt, 67 ; in Greece, 
298 ; in Rome, 566 ff., 669 

Slavs (slavz), 706 

Social War, 582 

Socrates (sok'ra tez), 416 ff., 420 f. 

SoKo mon, 205 f. 

So'lpn, 303 ff., 342, 345, 355 

Sophia (so fe'a), Saint, 688, 698 

Sophists (sof ists), 357 ff., 370, 372, 

415 
Sophocles (sof'o klez), 353, 371 ff. 
Spain (span), 594 
Spar'ta, 283, 307, 336 ff., 347 U 

401 ; fall of, 402 
Spartan leadership, 394 ff. 
Spar'tan league, 307, 392 
Sphinx (sfingks), 50 
Stesichorus (ste sik'o rus), 309 f. 
Stilicho (stil'i ko), 692 f. 
Stoicism (sto'i sizm), 478 f. 
Stone Age, Early, 5 ff. ; Late, 14 ff., 

221 f.; Middle, 9 ff.; in Egypt, 

38 ; in Italy, 488 



Stonehenge (ston'henj), 30 
Stra'bo, 613, 661 
Sudan (so dan'), 59 
Sulla (sul'a), 425, 582 ff. 
Su'mer, 108 

Su me'ri an agriculture, 108 
Sumerian art, 118 
Sumerian calendar, in 
Sumerian houses, 114 f. 
Sumerian religion, ii2f. 
Sumerian society, 119 
Sumerian writing, 109 ff. 
Sumerians, 107 ff.; union of, with 

Semites, 126 f. 
Sus^(so'sa), 189, 437 
Swiss lake-villages, 20 f. 
Syracuse (sir'a kus), 289 f., 344, 

385 
Syria (sir'i a), 448, 585, 643 

Tacitus (tas'i tus), 654 
Taren'tum, 517, 522f. ' . 
Tasmanians (taz ma'ni anz), 2 f. , 
Terence (terpens), 562 
Tetricus (tet'ri kus), 676 
Teutons (tu'tonz), 579 
Thales (tha'l6z), 316, 318 
Theater, Greek, 310 
Thebes (thebz), in Egypt, 80, 86 f., 

92, 94» 375 
Thebes, in Greece, 284, 402 ff., 

429 
Themistocles (the mis'to klez), 

328 ff., 338 f., 341 
Theocritus (the ok'ri tus), 475, 616 
Theodoric (the od'o rik), 695 
Theodosius (the p do'shi us), 684, 

692, 697 ; Edict of, 700 
Thermopylae (ther mop'i 16), 329 ff. 
Theseus (the'sus), 367 
Thucydides (thusid'i dez), 419, 

615 
Thu'le, 471 
Thutmose (thot mo'se) III, 84 f., 

684 
Ti be'ri us, emperor, 617 f. 
Tiberius Gracchus (grak'us),576f. 
Tibullus (ti bul'us), 659 
Tigranes (tigra'nez), 585 
Ti mo'the os, 474 
Tiryns (ti'rinz), 237, 247 f. 
Tl'tus, 627 



742 



Ancient Times 



Tombs of the Egyptian kings, 94 f . 
Tours (tor), 7 1 1 
Tower of Babel, 1 1 2 
Towns, earliest, 26 f. 
Tra'jan, 627 ff., 634 ff., 650 f. 
Trasimene (tras'i men). Lake, 539 
Tri bo'ni an, 697 
Tribunes (trib'unz), 505 
Triumvirate (tri um'vi rat), 587 
Troy (troi), 239, 245 ff., 429 
Turks, 713 

Tyrants, Age of, 301 ff. ; civiliza- 
tion of, 307 ff., 320 
Tyre (tir), 434 



Urfi las, 69 1 

University, of Alexandria, 477; 

Athens, 479 ; of Rome, 642 
Ur (er), 126 



of 



Valens (va'lenz), 692 
Vandals (van'dalz), 691, 693 
Ve'nus, 502 

Vespasian (ves pa'zhian), 609, 
625 f. 



Ves'ta, 502 

Virgil (ver'jil), 616, 702 

Visigoths (viz'i goths), 692 

Wedge-form writing, 1 10 f., 189 f., 

242 
West Goths, 692 
i.Women, position of, in Greece, 

353 f- 
Writing, phonetic, 41 ff.; pictorial, 

40 ; invention of, 45 
Writing materials, 43 f. 

Xenophon (zen'o fon), 399 ff., 422 
Xerxes (zerk'sez), 187, 190, 328 ff. 

Yahveh (yava'), 206 

Za'ma, 544 ff. 
Ze'no, 479 
Ze no'bi a, 676 
Zeus (zus), 277 ff. 
Zeuxis (zuk'sis), 411 
Zo ro as'ter, 177 ff., 675 



I 



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REFERENCE BQOKS IN 
HISTORY 

Abbott : Roman Political Institutions 

Asser : Life of King Alfred 

Brigham : From Trail to Railway through the Appalachians 

Brigham : Geographic Influences in American History 

Callender : Economic History of the United States, 1765-1860 

Cannon : Reading References for English History 

Channing, Hart, and Turner: Guide to the Study and Reading 

of American History (Revised and Augmented Edition) 
Cheyney : Readings in English History 
Dealey : Growth of American State Constitutions 
Fess : History of Political Theory and Party Organization in the 

United States 
Hayes : British Social Politics 
Hitchcock : The Louisiana Purchase 
Keller : Colonization 
Muzzey : Readings in American History 
Myers : History as Past Ethics 
Priest : Germany since 1740 

Reinsch : Readings on American Federal Government 
Reinsch : Readings on American State Government 
Richardson, Ford, Durfee, and Lutz : Syllabus of Continental 

European History (Revised Edition) 
Riggs : Studies in United States History 
Robinson : Readings in European History, Volume I 

Volume II 

Abridged Edition 
Robinson and Beard : Readings in Modern European History 

Volume I 

Volume II 
Thallon : Readings in Greek History 
Tuell and Hatch : Selected Readings in English History 
Webster : General History of Commerce (Revised Edition) 



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I 



AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE 
SPIRIT OF TODAY 

The Revised Edition of Muzzey's " American History " is of im- 
portance in that it marks the bringing to date of a book which for a 
number of years has been more widely used than any other American 
history for high-school and college classes. It is the product of that 
rare combination of qualities, — sound scholarship, a discriminating 
sense of historical value and proportion, and a strong, vivid style that 
makes history as interesting as a storybook. It presents the facts of 
our history in a lively and continuous narrative without prejudice or 
favor, and it is distinctly modern in tone and outlook. 

Features of this book are its emphasis on the westward-moving 
frontier as the most constant and potent force in our history and 
the unusually large amount of space devoted to the history of our 
country since the Civil War. Special emphasis is placed on political 
development and on those factors in our national growth which are 
most vital from the standpoint of today. 

Professor Muzzey shows in the trends of yesterday the early devel- 
opment of our national problems of today. The events of the World 
War and the period since the armistice are treated with the author's 
usual keen sense of proportion. The text is brought down to 1920. 

By DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY, Columbia University 
X + 537 -f xlvi pages, illustrated. 



READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

One hundred and twenty-five selections, comprising extracts from 
state papers, private journals and letters, and early chronicles, the 
speeches and writings of public men, and newspaper narrative and 
comment. A unique feature is the frequent presentation of several 
extracts on a single topic. 

Edited by DAVID SAVILLE MUZZEY 
xxvii + 594 pages. 



JINN AND COMPANY Publishers 



GUIDE TO THE STUDY AND READ- 
ING OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

(Revised and Augmented Edition) 

By Edward Channing, Albert Bushnell Hart, and Frederick 
Jackson Turner, Harvard University 

izmo, cloth, xvi + 650 pages 

In the revision of this standard manual for teachers and librarians, 
the authors have made substantial additions to the original material 
and have brought the bibliographies down to date. The arrangement 
adopted in the previous edition has been retained and differentiates 
three main fields of information : Parts I and III, suggestions on the 
reading and teaching of history; Part II, select lists of books and 
other materials, classified under bibliographical aids, general works, 
geography, sources, and illustrative works ; and Parts IV-V, one 
hundred eighty topics in American history with specific references. 

Parts IV-V have been enlarged to include Western and other 
sectional developments, social and economic history in general, and 
historical developments from the Civil War down to the present. 
The scholarship and accuracy of the Guide make it invaluable. 



READING REFERENCES FOR 
ENGLISH HISTORY 

By Henry Lewin Cannon, Leland Stanford Junior University 
i2mo, cloth^ 559 pages 

Exact references to some two thousand of the most useful and 
accessible works on English history will be found in this book. The 
plan of the work includes : first, a bibliography of all the books 
referred to ; second, topics with specific references covering the whole 
field of English history, chronologically divided into sections, with 
special sections for colonial history. Each section contains references 
to accessible sources, to modern works of a nature especially suitable 
for high-school students, and to modern works of a more advanced 
character; a summary of subtopics; and bibliographical references 
to facilitate further reading. Two appendixes give references to 
historical fiction and to poetry. 



GINN AND COMPANY Publishers 

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